Does it snow in Seattle?

[enigmadsm]

Salty is on point IMO...Even here in Boise, we have similar situations...The people here are AWEFUL at maintaining the roads...usually its just the highway that will get hit with the de-icer and thats about it, maybe a couple plows. But city streets are a mess....a lot of people here don't account for the ice and just slide everywhere.

Like Seattle, it seems like when it snows its always at the brink of freezing, so overnight it always ices over .

I'm sure its not nearly as bad as you guys, we don't have as much congestion or topography, but i think its safe to say that the whole NW lacks the equipment and knowledge to properly care for the roads, that or there just isn't anything else they can do

[MaikeerinWA]

I'm tired of it too! Both online and in the office (when I can get to it ).

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

Of reading about how bad the drivers here are in the snow - particularly coming from mid-Westerners.

[jm31828]

Originally Posted by MichaelinWA

I'm tired of it too! Both online and in the office (when I can get to it ).

If it helps any, I came from the Midwest and the people there are really bad drivers at the beginning of each snow season as well- they only get better as the season goes on and they get used to it. We don't get snow very often here, so each time is sort of like the first of the season- can't be too hard on drivers for that.

[OregonYeti]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

... but, it seems to me an even bigger issus is the NATURE of our snows.

Ken

Agreeing with that, I'd say the snow forecast is often iffy. There's no storm coming across hundreds of miles of prairie, with progress that's relatively easy to predict. Even when it seems pretty sure to hit soon, it's harder to tell exactly what it's going to do and where, as compared to the midwest.

Another thing is that frozen precipitation usually happens pretty close to the freezing point--and as a result a couple of degrees difference can make a big difference in rain vs snow. Add in the differences in elevation we have here and it varies more, whereas on the prairie that's almost a non-issue since it's pretty much flat.

Still, the plowing and all could be better.

[packet]

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

Of reading about how bad the drivers here are in the snow - particularly coming from mid-Westerners.

In the mid-West (and East Coast to a lesser extent), the ground is already COLD when snow hits, meaning that it can be plowed, swept, blown, pushed or any other number of verbs away, leaving cold, dry pavement.

Here, we have warm, wet ground that suddenly freezes, and then gets wet snow on top of it which also freezes. Add to that the ridiculously hilly topogragphy (which you kind of forget about until the ice forms), and you have a nearly impossible landscape for wheeled vehicles.

I'd like to invite the genius drivers to take their 'expertise' in a 4wd car and try to make it up Denny, or Dravus, or QA ave, or even 65th in these short-lived conditions. I'd enjoy watching them spin out and end up on YouTube.

Get over yourselves, cold-climate veterans. Your experience, while having some value, does not translate to some sort of driving excellence here when the S&*^ hits the fan.

No, the main difference is that the east coast tends to plow far more often when it does snow. The plowing in the seattle area is atrocious.

To compound this, the people around here have little experience driving in snow on a regular basis. So, when it does snow, everything goes to hell.

Claim that the snow out here is different all you want, but it doesn't really matter. It snows and ices over just as badly on the east coast. Aside from the first snowstorm of the year, people on the east coast drive in it fairly well. It's also quite hilly out there.

The difference also is people on the east coast wouldn't be driving up huge hills covered in ice. They'd find another way around or park at the bottom and walk if they lived close. People around here don't seem to understand that in some situations, you don't even attempt to go up. Thus, we have these videos on youtube every storm.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by packet

No, the main difference is that the east coast tends to plow far more often when it does snow. The plowing in the seattle area is atrocious.

To compound this, the people around here have little experience driving in snow on a regular basis. So, when it does snow, everything goes to hell.

Claim that the snow out here is different all you want, but it doesn't really matter. It snows and ices over just as badly on the east coast. Aside from the first snowstorm of the year, people on the east coast drive in it fairly well. It's also quite hilly out there.

The difference also is people on the east coast wouldn't be driving up huge hills covered in ice. They'd find another way around or park at the bottom and walk if they lived close. People around here don't seem to understand that in some situations, you don't even attempt to go up. Thus, we have these videos on youtube every storm.

Saltydawg is right. The ground here never does get as cold as it does back east or in the midwest. Any gardener can tell you that. It's part of the reason we tubers like Dalias have ANY CHANCE of surviving out here even when left in the ground. If you do that back east or in the midwest it's pretty much guarenteed they'll be killed because the ground freezes sold for several months. That just doesn't happen here. The ground just never really gets that cold for any length of time. Consequently it IS true that the latent heat left in the ground DOES tend to meld the snow that first falls during each snowfall. This is NOT the case back east (and especially not in the midwest - where the ground freezes solidly). And because (as has already been mention by others) the temps here are often very close to the freezing point as the snow begins to fall it doesn't take much latent heat in the soil, pavement etc to melt that first thin layer of snow - which of course later freezes into ice as more snow falls on top of it.
Back east & the midwest DO tend to have this problem with their first snowfalls, but the winter temps back east get so cold (and tend to stay cold) the ground soon freezes. Later snowfalls therefor fall on an already frozen surface and consequently the first flakes tend to remain frozen from the get-go. Here that just doesn't happen, the ground may freeze for a couple of days, but soon warmer temps and fresh rain warms it back up again above the freezing point (which it stays at until the next deep freeze).

I spent 2 winters in North Dakota, 4 in Michigan (as well as 2 in New York state) and none of those places have the ice problems we have here when it snows. In NoDak especially, it was sooooooooo cold in the winter that our snow was almost always powder snow (so "dry" you couldn't even make snowballs out of it) - compared to the wet, thick, heavy, sloppy snow we tend to have out here. Consequently it was NO WHERE NEAR as slick back there as it is here.

Ken