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December 01, 2005

Snoo

Hey, it's actually legitimately snowing here in Redmond. Not sticking yet, but reasonably dense snow coming down.

Seattle is just on the edge of getting snow. It is coldest here when it is clear at night and the clouds aren't trapping heat. But, it rarely gets much below freezing, even at night. And to have snow you need precipitation, which doesn't happen with no clouds. So to get snow in Seattle, you typically need it to be cold at night, then have precipitation move in in the very early morning, before it has a chance to warm up.

That's why when it snows in Seattle it almost always snows overnight. It's very rare for it to be clear in the morning and then start snowing during the day. In fact before today, the only time I remember that happening was back in December 1990, when we had 14 inches of snow, all of it during the day. Normally with the overnight snows people just don't come to work if they can't make it, but that time everyone was already at work, and people had to get home. I was living in Capital Hill at the time and I had to creep home in my car (the edge of the highway literally was a continuous row of abandoned cars), inch up the hill trying not to get stuck, and then skate my car down the inclined alleyway that had the entrance to the parking garage of my apartment building (took me a couple of go-arounds to accomplish that).

Then I stayed home from work for 2 days, which was convenient except I had to drive a friend to the airport, so I had to venture out in the snow. There was no real telecommuting back then so I just punted the 2 days (flex time, ya know). My wife, who lived within walking distance of campus, went to work both days and was rewarded with membership in the "St. Bernard's Club" (which I think came with one of those car kits with a flare, blanket, tire pressure gauge, etc).

Posted by AdamBa at December 1, 2005 11:34 AM

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Comments

I'm happy for you that it's not snowing where you are.

It was certainly snowing when I left work, and I'm in my kitchen staring at an inch of snow sitting on my patio...

Posted by: Larry Osterman at December 1, 2005 02:55 PM

Yes, it eventually started accumulating at our house, and we wound up with about 1.5 inches. It snowed from about noon to 4, now it's raining/melting.

- adam

Posted by: Adam Barr at December 1, 2005 10:03 PM