Snow (Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue: house, neighborhood, public schools)

[PG77]

I see on the weather forecast that Tacoma might get anywhere from a trace to 1 inch of snow on Saturday. Is this normal for this area? Snow is a four letter word that I do not care for and am having enough trouble dealing with the rain here.

[sean98125]

It's normal. You can expect a couple of light snowfalls over the winter.

[PG77]

Originally Posted by sean98125

It's normal. You can expect a couple of light snowfalls over the winter.

Thanks! I guess I can handle just a couple of them.

[back2sa]

Yeah, just know that even a small amount around here will shut things down because of all the hills. Good thing it doesn't last long here.

[nwraider]

I actually dig the snow myself, but yeah, if it was here for 3, 4 months at a time like the upper midwest or the mountains it might get to me.. We only get it occasionally here in the South Sound, although last year was more than we'd gotten in the previous couple years combined since we moved up here.. That said, cannot wait for the supposed snow we'll get tomorrow..

[scirocco22]

Once in awhile, the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area will get a whopper snowstorm. It is possible to get 8-12 inches or more in the area. Thinking back, I can remember a handful of them. I think I described some in a prior thread on this subject. One of the most memorable was the one in 1969 when I was in high school and it was unheard of at the time but the Seattle Public Schools closed for a day because of it. I believe that was the winter when people were actually attempting to ice skate on Green Lake!

[PG77]

8-12 inches i am heading back to florida

[_Charles_]

In 2003 we got zonked with 11 inches of snow right before Christmas. I was living in the Eastlake neighborhood of Seattle at the time. It was very unusual. The city came to a standstill but only for 1 day. A week later you would have never know it had even snowed.

The Puget Sound lowlands stay warm enough all winter that even when it does snow it melts right away.

[scirocco22]

Yeah, but again, there can be rare instances of snow staying around longer. I think it was January 1967 when it snowed off and on for about 3 weeks and there was some snow on the ground constantly for over 4 weeks going into February.

I think it was in 1985 when there was a rare storm that was almost unbelievable because it came in out of nowhere about a week before Thanksgiving. It felt like a Minnesota snow. It was snowing and blowing with temperatures in the high teens and low 20's. It started in the afternoon when everybody was at work. It was raining all morning and then all of a sudden it started snowing around 2:00 in the afternoon. I remember all the people that were standing at bus stops in downtown Seattle waiting for buses that wouldn't never show up because they were stuck somewhere away from the downtown area (and even IN the downtown area) without chains. I had almost 20 inches of snow on my deck at my house in the Bellevue/Redmond area when I got home. By morning, there was almost 2 feet on my driveway. That snow stayed on the ground through Thanksgiving and into the next week because the temperature stayed in the teens and twenties all that time.

Then there was the relatively recent one in the late 80's/early 90's where snow was on the ground for almost two weeks. They actually canceled Metro bus service for one day on a Sunday. It was unprecedented as bus service never had been canceled system-wide for the entire day before in the history of the city ...and hasn't ever been canceled since.

[Skytripper]

Up here in western Whatcom County.......it ALMOST.....seems like a miniature blizzard right now around Bellingham.
Only an inch or two of snow has fallen here so far, but the wind is REALLY picking up and blowing this white stuff everywhere!
MUCH more snow east of Bellingham in the foothills.
I-5.....pretty tricky too.....might be able to do 40mph safely right now but there were a few vehicles in the ditches around Ferndale a couple hours ago......ALL of them were 4 WD Jeeps/trucks/SUV's....LOL. Guess they THINK they're ok in snow to drive the "normal" speed limit.
Forecasting 2 to 4 FEET in the Cascasdes....2" to 6" here near sea level.
Then....they say we are in for a warm up with heavy rain and winds gusting to 60 mph later Sunday into Monday!
Gotta LOVE the great Pacific NW this time of year!
BTW.....almost exactly 1 year ago......an 18 inch snowfall here....in one storm, and the roads were a mess for a full week!
Global warming? NOT today!