The Weatherman

Link to SeattlePI story.

So we had the wettest month ever in Seattle history (or we are very close - need to confirm that one), followed by some off and on snow, then extremely icy temperatures, and now we have very cold weather. It’s currently 21F degrees outside and expected to dip into high teens here in West Seattle.

Better yet, I just checked the NWS and they have a Winter Storm Watch for our area tomorrow night. It appears the cold air will take a little time to mix out while the next storm hits us. I love this!!! Here are the details on the Winter Storm Watch.

…WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING
THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING..

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM
WATCH FOR MOST OF WESTERN WASHINGTON…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM
WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING. THE WATCH INCLUDES THE
URBAN CORRIDOR FROM CHEHALIS NORTH THROUGH THE SEATTLE METRO
AREA…EVERETT…AND BELLINGHAM.

A VERY COLD ARCTIC AIR MASS HAS SETTLED OVER WESTERN WASHINGTON
BRINGING SUB FREEZING TEMPERATURES TO MOST AREAS. AN APPROACHING
FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL SPREAD MOISTURE OVER THIS COLD AIR WEDNESDAY
NIGHT AND THURSDAY MORNING CREATING A WINTRY MIX. PRECIPITATION
SHOULD BEGIN AS ALL SNOW…FIRST AT THE COAST EARLY WEDNESDAY
EVENING…SPREADING INLAND LATER IN THE EVENING. AS WARMER AIR
MOVES INTO THE AREA LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY
MORNING…SNOW WILL LIKELY CHANGE TO A MIX OF RAIN…SNOW AND
POSSIBLY SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN. THE WINTRY MIX WILL TAPER OFF
MIDDAY THURSDAY AS THE FRONT MOVES ACROSS THE AREA.

AT THIS TIME…SNOW OR ICE ACCUMULATION REMAIN HIGHLY UNCERTAIN. IT
WILL DEPEND ON HOW QUICKLY WARMER AIR ALOFT MIXES DOWN TO THE
SURFACE.

Yep, it’s cold.  It is 23F degrees this morning.  And the roads are solid ice.  The main roads are fine around here but all side streets are ice rinks.

The highways were a nightmare last night with some people on the road all night in order to get home from work or the football game.

Things are clearing up now.  Tonight will be clear and cold (lows in the teens around here) so we’ll probably have lots of black ice tonight.

Looking down our walkway.

Update: Started snowing lightly again and the temperature is down to 27F degrees. I took a walk about an hour ago and things were very, very icy…including the road. There have been a ton of accidents involving people leaving the Seahawks game. Plus, in Issaquah, where we lived over the summer, they have picked up 4 to 5 inches of snow.

Well, you would know this if you watched the beginning of tonight’s MNF game…in Seattle against Green Bay. It started snowing about 20 minutes before the start of the game and continued for about 90 minutes. We got about an inch of snow at our house.

This snowfall was much drier since the air was cooler. Right now the temperature is 29F outside and expected to continue falling. This is going to cause all that water on the streets to freeze up hard - so driving in the morning could be very interesting.

Update: After this mornings snow event, it turned to rain and most of the snow was gone by early afternoon. At around 3pm the rain changed back to snow and we have another inch on the ground. It’s been snowing very lightly for several hours. Any showers that come over our area tonight could drop another inch or two of snow. It’s 32F degrees out now - a further drop in temperatures and we’ll have some serious ice on the roads.

Yep, we got some snow this morning. It started between 5 and 5:30am (yeah, Zach had us up). It snowed for a few hours before turning to rain. We ended up with about an inch of snow. What a great birthday gift for Steph!

Mom and Zach playing with the snow.

Dad’s aboriginal snowman.

Let me poop in the house just once.

Snow Play

And I took some pre-dawn movies. Movie 1 and Movie 2.

I have had a tough week.  I got sick at daycare on Tuesday and  decided to throw up a few minutes before mommy came to pick me up.  I  was pretty sick and had a fever that night.  Wednesday, I stayed home  from daycare.  Mommy and I hung out together.  I didn’t have a fever  any more and did not throw up again.  We were mellow and just watched  Finding Nemo and Baby Einstein videos.  I slept A LOT too.  Mommy  kept me home on Thursday too.  I was feeling much better.  We went to  the Aquarium together so I could look at the fish.  (But I call them  “ish”).    We came home and I took a nap for only a couple of hours.   When I woke up, I was not hungry right away.  Instead we watched a  few videos.  I was hungry around 3, so mommy and I went to my  favorite restaurant (Elliot Bay Brewing Company).  This way I could  order my Kid Sampler Platter.  It was yummy.  We came home and I had  all of my energy back.  We played for awhile until daddy came home.   Then daddy took me to my weekly swim lesson.  We had a good time.   Daddy can throw me in the air out of the water much higher than  mommy.  I also mastered being able to climb out of the pool by  pulling myself up on the edge and then sitting down.  I then like to  jump back into daddy’s arms and start all over again.  When we got  home, mommy gave me a bath and it was bed time.  I was very fussy and  did not want to go to sleep.  I decided to cry and throw a fit for  about an hour until finally going to sleep.  I slept well and went  back to daycare on Friday.  (Mommy was happy because it gave her a  chance to clean the house and run a bunch of errands.)  I may have  started a small epidemic (or Zachdemic) at daycare since at least one  other kid and maybe two were sick with my disease.  Mommy and daddy  both picked me up in the afternoon.  We then went to the park for  about a half hour since it actually was not raining here.  But it got  cold and dark so we had to go home.  Once we were home, mommy called  to see if Dominic and his parents wanted to come over.  They did so  we played.  We all had dinner and Dominic and I played.  But I was  really tired so I went to sleep about 7:30.  Mommy told me later that  Dominic decided not to sleep and stayed up til around 9:30 so his  parents decided they better take him home.  Which brings us to  Saturday.  I got up around 7am.  Then mommy and daddy drove about 50  minutes to the SNOW!  We barely drove far at all and we were suddenly  in 3 feet of snow.  This was a place called Snoqualamie Pass.  We got  out of the car and played in the snow for a while.  Daddy was mean  and kept throwing snowballs at me.  Mommy and daddy also let me slide  down a small hill on my butt.  That was really fun and I laughed a  lot.  I started getting cold so we decided to go to the outlet mall.   We all got some new clothes to keep us warm in the winter.  While  mommy was picking out some new clothes for me, I was walking around  the store with daddy.  I picked out a Pink Princess skirt all by  myself.  I carried it around the store for 5 minutes until I found  mommy in the boys section.  I handed her the skirt but for some  reason she did not buy it.  I also found some beautiful flowered  leggings and gave them to mommy as she was at the cash register, but  she did not buy those either.  Oh well.  Then we went to the  Snoqualamie Brew Pub for lunch.  It was yummy.  We drove home (I fell  asleep) and then I took a long nap.  Mommy and daddy watched the  Michigan game (poor Wolverines).  I woke up around 3:30.  I had not  pooped yet but I decided to go all at once at 4.  It was such a big  poop that I got to take a bath as a result.  I love the bath.  Since  I started swim lessons, my favorite activity in the bath is to lie  down on my stomach and kick my legs.  I will even occasionally put my  face in the water and try to blow bubbles (or just swallow some).  We  watched more football in the evening and then I had dinner and went  to bed.  I had a really bad case of the hiccups tonight.  Daddy’s  family says that having the hiccups means you are growing.  Mommy  says I am too big and heavy all ready.  So that is what I have been  up too.  I miss everyone and can’t wait til people come visit me.

We took a drive up to Snoqualmie Pass yesterday morning to check out the snow. Zach played for about 30 minutes and we let him slide down a little hill. He seemed to enjoy it. After the snow we stopped off a the North Bend Factory Outlets and grabbed lunch at the Snoqualmie Brewing Company.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon watching the Michigan - OSU game. While the wrong team won, it was an incredible game. I would love to see a rematch in the BCS Championship.

Today we are sitting inside watching the Niners take it to the Seahawks. Oh, and it’s raining

Here are some shots from last week and yesterday.

Zach playing outside at the Aquarium

I can make snowballs too!

Can you eat this stuff?

Normally, this isn’t something to blog about, but these 3 headlines in succession are worthy. Here they are:

Brace yourselves for another stiff blow

‘Sexualized atmosphere’ in county jail

1 percent of Web deemed pornographic

We took Zach and grandma to the Seattle Aquarium yesterday. It’s a pretty small aquarium which is good when chasing your kid all over the place. They have some cool otter exhibits and a glass dome that surrounds you with water and fish. They also have a tidepool display, some very cool ocean aquariums and some tidepools for touching starfish and other such things.