a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
Dry January has come to an end, with rain last night and today— about a quarter inch here in the city today.
There will be more on Thursday and Friday.
The cloud cover made for elevated temperatures as well: 48 °F (9 °C) in the morning, with a high of 52 °F (11 °C).
This January here in the city, has now seen a record-setting stretch of over 10 consecutive days without rain.
Every day has been sunny and cold, and the massive storm system playing out in the rest of the country is also passing us by.
Late afternoon, I ventured out for a quick walk (39 °F/ 4°C).
The ’12’ flag is up on top of the Space Needle.
(The 12 represents the “12th Man” —a tribute to the dedicated fans of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team.)
Reporters Greg Allen and Ava Berger write on npr.org:
A massive winter storm system is forecast to sweep the country this weekend, stretching from Central Texas through the Northeast.
The National Weather Service says the system will dump heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Southern Plains to the Mid-South starting Friday. The storm is expected to move across the East Coast throughout the weekend, according to a bulletin from the NWS posted on Wednesday.
The NWS warned of “treacherous travel conditions, prolonged power outages, and tree damage,” across the southeast U.S.
Government officials in these areas are asking residents to avoid traveling and prepare for possible power outages.
A blast of cold air from Canada will mix with warmer air from the south, bringing significant snow and ice accumulations, forecasters said.
The rain has started again, and there was a failure in the levee alongside the Green River in Tukwila at around 11:30 a.m.
King County emergency officials sent out a warning of ‘life threatening flash flooding’ for the nearby low-lying area of some 46,000 residents.
There were no injuries as a result of the breach, though. Soon thereafter the area under threat was narrowed down and involved only about 1,100 people, who were urged to evacuate.
The county’s flash flood warning ended by 6.30 pm.
Here are updated pictures of the Snoqualmie Falls from the Seattle Times.
The Snoqualmie river was at major flooding level for much of Wednesday and Thursday.
[Photo by Ken Lambert for The Seattle Times. Caption from The Seattle Times]
[Photo by Nick Wagner for The Seattle Times. Caption from The Seattle Times]
The second wave of moisture from a strong atmospheric river filled in across western Washington last night.
All that water is flooding from the western slopes of the Cascade mountains into the streams and rivers below.
Greg Kim writes for the Seattle Times:
River flooding in parts of Western Washington is expected to be “catastrophic,” especially in the coastal lowlands near the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit rivers, according to a new assessment by the National Weather Service.
Areas facing “considerable” flooding stretch from Bellingham through south of Olympia.
Catastrophic flooding could bring significant risk to life and property, with a high risk of levees being topped and landslides expected in steep terrain, according to the National Weather Service. It could also mean record floods that destroy roads and structures and require evacuations or rescues of people and property, National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Reedy said.
Paige Cornwell write for the Seattle Times:
The opening salvo of a major atmospheric river hit the Pacific Northwest on Monday, drenching much of Western Washington with heavy rain that is forecast to continue at least until Thursday.
The National Weather Service warned of a high risk of widespread and significant river flooding.
South of Puget Sound, the Puyallup, Nisqually, Cowlitz and Carbon rivers were already seeing waters about to spill over their banks by 7 p.m. Monday, with serious flooding expected within hours.
[Photo by Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times]
There was a break in the rainy weather today here in the city— with a powder blue sky, a little late afternoon sun, and blustery conditions.
Tonight the last supermoon* of the year— and the third in a consecutive sequence— is out. (There will be a fourth supermoon in this same celestial series in January 2026).
We have cloud cover and lots of rain here in the city in Seattle tonight, so for now I can only look for pictures of the supermoon online.
*A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the Moon is at or near its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, a point called perigee. This proximity makes the Moon appear slightly brighter and larger than an average full moon, although the difference may be difficult to notice with the naked eye. The term can also technically apply to a new moon, but it is typically associated with the visible full moon.
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I thought it too cold to go for a walk today—44°F (6°C)— then changed my mind at the last minute before dark.
I took the No 10 bus to Westlake Center at sunset to check out the Christmas tree and its lights. (Pike Place Market is just a few blocks away).
There were not a lot of people around, probably because it was chilly (43°F/ 6°C). A few Seahawks fans were back from Lumen Field, where the Hawks took out the Minnesota Vikings 26-0 tonight.
The sun wasn’t out today, and it was a cold fall day here in the city.
The low this morning was 38°F (3°C) and the high 52°F (11 °C).
Here is the sun today, with about 45 minutes of daylight remaining.
The days are now 9 hours 5 minutes long, with sunset at 4.27 pm.
The trees that lead to the Volunteer Park Conservatory are now mostly bare of their leaves.
The sun was out, with broken clouds, today.
It was only 48°F (9°C) outside, though, and I bundled up for my walk this afternoon.
There was light rain on and off all weekend here in the city, and a little fog in the Seattle’s low-lying areas this morning. Some trees still have leaves on, but a lot have now shed it all.
Elsewhere in Washington State, in the Yakima River Basin, the severe drought conditions continue. Conrad Swanson writes for the Seattle Times ‘This might be the driest year in recent memory, fresh on the heels of severe droughts last year and the year before’.
There was more rain today (another inch or so).
I ventured outside with my umbrella before the gray outside tuned into black.
It rained on and off all day, and about 1.2 in (30 mm) was recorded here in the city the last 24 hours by late Wednesday night.
Judson Jones, meteorologist and reporter, writes for the New York Times:
Melissa made landfall in Jamaica with both 185 m.p.h. winds and the 892-millibar pressure.
In the Atlantic, only one other storm has ever struck land with this exact ferocity: the unnamed Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, which tore through the Florida Keys.
Nearly a century ago, that storm’s pressure reading was taken by a weather observer who climbed a tree to record it.
Melissa’s was measured by a hurricane hunter plane that flew into the eye of the storm.
There were blue skies today.
I took these photos at Volunteer Park, and along Capitol Hill’s 14th Ave East.
The heavy winds knocked the power out for tens of thousands of Seattle metro residents last night. The power was still getting restored across the city and Western Washington today.
There was a break in the rain this afternoon, and I walked down to Elliott Bay Bookstore on 10th Avenue.
The store was still without power, but customers were allowed in.
I looked like they used their phones to pay for their purchases through the store’s website.
