Seattle Weather/Climate Thread (sales tax, vehicle, ticket)

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

Black ice is definitely worse than snow. It was a big problem when I lived in Germany. The climate there led to a lot of black ice on the roads. You can't see it at all. One moment you are on dry pavement, and the next moment you are skating on ice. You eventually learn to be paranoid, and just expect it; but not until you've slid off the road once or twice or more...

What part of Germany were you in?

[george_seifert]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

It's not USUALLY icy.
Having said that, it obviously DOES sometimes happen, but it usually only lasts for a few days before even the nighttime lows climb back above freezing. Remember, even in Dec/Jan the average overnight low never drops below freezing. Most of the time (even in the depths of winter) it's usually just rainy or cloudy at night.

Ken

Whew, that's good to hear. It sure seemed like it would be icy most of the time. We're dealing with freezing rain here now and it's bad even by Minnesota standards.

George

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

What part of Germany were you in?

3 years in Friedberg (15 minutes north of Frankfurt), 2 years in Baumholder, and 2 years in Regensburg.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

3 years in Friedberg (15 minutes north of Frankfurt), 2 years in Baumholder, and 2 years in Regensburg.

You were in the milder parts of Germany. I could understand black ice in those parts.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by george_seifert

Whew, that's good to hear. It sure seemed like it would be icy most of the time. We're dealing with freezing rain here now and it's bad even by Minnesota standards.

George

Both Portland to the south and Vancouver BC to the north have worse problems with freezing rain etc than Seattle does. In both those cases the cities lie near major river passages to the eastern side of the Cascades (ie the massive Columbia gorge to the south & the Fraser River Canyon to the north).

Since the PNW is divided into 2 completely different climates (wet/mild on the ocean side of the Cascades & dry (with hot summers & cold winters) on the eastern side of the cascades (ie desert)) these natural passages though the Mts provide an avenue for very cold "continental" air to slip westward from time to time, affecting Portland & Vancouver BC). The combination of VERY COLD dry air from the east meeting wet mild air coming off the ocean results in bouts of freezing rain that happen more often there than in Seattle (which has a solid barrier of mountains between it and the cold air of Eastern Washington). Portland in particular seems to get these sorts of problems (probably because the Columbia Gorge is so huge & thus can allow a LOT of cold air to flow west). Seattle however doesn't have that problem so often.

Having spent a year & half in eastern North Dakota (ie TWO winters!!!!) I can tell you that you will find winters here to seem virtually non-existant by comparison. Despite what we are having at THIS PRECISE MOMENT (ie there is snow at my house in Seattle) snow is USUALLY a rarity here. It DOES happen from time to time (as do years that are essentially snow free all winter long (as was the case last year)) but for the most part it's just cloudy & rainy a lot - and with temps YOU won't consider to be really cold at all.

The upshot is that Seattle weather can best be descibed as "mild". Despite our position so far north, the Pacific to the west and the barrier Cascade Mts to the east gives us a very "sheltered" location with a climate a bit like that of southern England. It doesn't get very hot in the summer and is generally not very cold in the winter. Thunderstorm are rare and most of our rain comes in the form of light rain & drizzle that seems to last FOREVER.

Ken

[OregonYeti]

Because of the ocean's influence, even though lows hover in the 30's, it takes a lot to turn all that moisture into snow or ice. Freezing temps usually come with dry weather here.

Water doesn't freeze without a little bit of a fight. In my work we call it latent heat--pushing water into a phase change (ie liquid to solid) takes a lot more than just changing liquid water's temperature a few degrees. With all the moisture in the cold part of the year, there's some built-in resistance to ice or snow ... though they do happen.

[Xanathos]

Was thoroughly enjoying the white shroud this afternoon. It was the good kind of snow (in terms of falling). The light and airy kind that just sort of wisps around the air. Then it turned to snow pellets for a while (bordering on hail), and that kind of sucked...then it went back to the wispy stuff again.

It's not much use for making snowballs or snowmen, but it certainly creates a festive mood as you're wandering around the center of Kirkland doing some shopping.

Less amusing are the idiots who feel the need to do TWENTY FIVE in the left lane on 520 Eastbound just because a few puffs are falling to the ground. Seriously, there was no road accumulation, and light traffic in the right lane. Move over if you're terrified of your own shadow.

[OregonYeti]

I'm dyslexic and I thought the 520 sign was a speed limit sign of 025. Sorry.

Actually my Honda does great. It wasn't really me.

[LordBalfor]

Well, tonight was a PRIME example of what I meant when I said that the city shuts down when we get even a LITTLE bit of snow.

My wife called me at 5 PM & asked that I come pick her up in our 4WD Jeep because she was too nervous to drive in the snow (we had about 2-3 inches). So, I set out at 5 PM on what would be normally a 10 minute trip.

EVERYTHING was jammed up - the freeways, the sidestreets, everything.
It took me 2 hours to get there.
Rather than fight the traffic immediately to get back home, we waited 2 hours while we had did some shopping & had dinner out then set off for home. The freeways were STILL jammed up so we avoided them. It STILL took us an hour to get home.

That's Seattle on the few occasions we have snow.

Ken

[OregonYeti]

In Oregon the speed limit is a minimum. In the Seattle area it is a maximum (they take it literally), and when the weather is like this, you can expect someone to cut in front of you at 30 MPH on a 60 MPH highway.

Dayum.