The Weatherman

My first shots of lightning ever!  Yeah, they are are crappy, but this is my first attempt to capture lightning.  Besides, the storm is pretty far south so it’s not like this lightning was very close.

We had snow fall on Friday, Saturday, and today. Never enough fell to stick but yesterday it snowed for about an hour. This morning, while it technically snowed, it was light and only lasted for 15 minutes.

Now on to the new coffee maker. I’ve been pondering getting a single cup coffee maker but wasn’t sure which one. I decided on the Breville BKC600XL Single Cup Coffee Brewer

It brews using K-Cups and it also supplies a K-Cup for your own ground coffee. So far, the results are great. The coffee is good and the coffee maker is extremely easy to use.

Our Sundance Spa was delivered yesterday during our snowy, wet afternoon. Now we just need the electrician on Wednesday and it should be usable by Thursday!  BTW we got a Sundance Altamar

Yikes!!!  It’s coming true.  While sitting in a conference room at work from 3 to 4pm - I spent most of the time watching snow fall off and on during the meeting.  I just looked outside at home (7:30pm) and it’s snowing.  The temp has gone from 40 degrees to 36 degrees in about 15 minutes.

I checked out the NWS site and they claim that Snohomish county has received upwards of 5 inches.  Wow!  Tonight and tomorrow could be interesting.

I spent Wednesday through Saturday in Boston on business. Ok, Wednesday was spent flying to Boston, Thursday I was in meetings, Friday was for messing around, and I flew home Saturday morning. I’m definitely happy I took a day to tour around downtown Boston - there is plenty to see.

Let’s start with Thursday, and I don’t mean the work part. We were taken to Fenway Park to watch the Boston Red Sox take on the Detroit Tigers. Wow, what an experience. I just loved the ballpark. In addition it was an absolutely beautiful evening. I did take a stroll around the stadium to check out the place - it has definitely aged well. And for those who don’t know about ‘Sweet Caroline’ - read all about it here. For the record, I had no idea this occurred - so I was pretty amazed.

On Friday we walked from our Hotel north through Boston Common, and then took a stroll through the Massachusetts State House. After the capitol we got some grub at Dunkin Donuts (very popular in Boston) and toured through a graveyard where Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere are buried. BTW, graveyards show everywhere around the city. We then continued along the Freedom Trail toward the Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We then cruised through Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, and then past Paul Revere’s house. After that we walked to the Old North Church (went inside) and finally across the Charles River over to the USS Constitution.

We finished it off with food over at the Union Oyster House - the oldest, continuously running restaurant in the US. If you are ever there, we ate in the booth next to the booth where JFK used to eat. After lunch we cruised through beautiful Beacon Hill, past Cheers, and down Newbury Street. We finished off our afternoon with drinks at the top of the Prudential Tower.

I took an early flight home on Saturday morning, and luckily I did that. Saturday was absolutely beautiful in Seattle. We had a high of 80 at our house. We took the boys to the park for a few hours where Zach played on the slide and threw rocks into the water. The good weather was short lived - back to showers on Sunday and today we never even got to 50 degrees. We had rain, thunder, and cool air. Right now it is 39 degrees outside - pretty chilly for April.

I scheduled our hot tub delivery for Saturday. I spent yesterday clearing the bushes/trees that are in the way of the delivery. Now I’m trying to schedule the electrician to hook it up. We also have many birthdays coming up in April and May - including Zach’s party.

That’s all for now…pictures are getting uploaded, I’ll link them in soon.

View from my seat.

Graveyard with Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.

Inside Faneuil Hall

Brownstones in Beacon Hill.

View from Prudential Tower looking at the John Hancock Tower, I-90, and Logan Airport.

Nate at the park.

Zach navigating the slide.

Zach and Dominic holding hands at the park.

Yep…It is currently 35 degrees and snowing…it’s even sticking to the ground.

What bizarre weather we are getting.  It has definitely been colder than normal but snow is rare around March 1st let alone this close to April - amazing.

Anywho, I don’t expect it to last long but I am enjoying our late season cold weather surge.

I looked out at 4am and we had between 1 and 2 inches blanketing the area.  However it was no longer snowing and by 7am it had changed to rain.  It will be gone shortly but it was a nice change to look outside at a peaceful snow scene.

The rest of the week looks rainy and mild (highs in the low 40s and lows in the mid 30s).  Dublin weather is very similar to Seattle so I basically expect the same while I’m out there next week.  Looks like we’ll head over to Galway for a few days while I’m out there as a side trip - should be interesting.

It has started snowing again. There is a snow advisory for our area with 2″ expected. Stay tuned for more info/pictures.

Update:  What a bust of a snow storm.  Hood Canal area got up to 9 inches…we got a trace.

This was my first white Christmas.  This never happened in California and we never stayed in Tahoe over Christmas.  I guess this was the first white Christmas in Seattle since the 70s - aren’t we lucky 

Let me rewind a bit.  Yesterday was a mellow day around the house.  Steph had to work so Jan and I took care of the boys for the day.  Last night we went over to the Alessi’s for dinner…very yummy pasta dinner with lots of wine.  During dinner the boys, Dominic and Zach, had ventured over to the stereo system and one of the them decided to play with the volume.  He turned it up as loud as it could go…and it was loud.  Sasha hauled butt into the living room to turn it down.  But the boys were already freaked, which was to be expected since they were both standing in front of these large speakers.  They both came running into the kitchen crying and screaming…definitely had to be there.

This morning we got up and opened gifts with the boys.  Zach did well for a while then basically got sidetracked playing with stuff, so Auntie Jan got to open the remainder of his gifts.  Zach made out like a bandit with all sorts of toys, books and clothes.  Nate didn’t do too bad either.

As for most expensive gifts, I definitely took the cake there.  Steph got me my Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens - SWEET! And she also got me a Citizen watch I had been eyeing.  Definitely over board…but I don’t care  :-)  Oh, and I got some reading material (not appropriate for the blog)!  Thanks Hon!

After gift opening I cooked up some meatballs, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy…and we chowed all day.  Yummy!   Other than that, we hung around the fire and watched it snow.  I made this ragin fire that was very hot…kept things comfy all day.

Here are some photos.

Dominic and Zach dancing.

Zach liking the pasta.

Nate hanging out on Christmas day.

Yeah, I’m awake.

Christmas Blizzard 2007.  We got a half inch…it made things pretty.

Zach playing with a race track.

Movies are coming…building it now on the computer.

I made it up to Crystal Mountain yesterday for my first day on the slopes.  Sorry no pictures…since it was pouring rain.  It was a heavy, wet snow for a while on top of the mountain but eventually it all changed to rain.  I was able to get about 3 hours of skiing in with a friend of mine before our gloves were soaked all the way through.

This was my first time at Crystal - what a good mountain.  Also, it’s very easy for me to get there…only about 80 miles away and only a few miles of mountain driving.  I’ll definitely be heading back.  It is very similar to Alpine Meadows in California.

This was also the first time I got to try out my Volkl Vertigo G4 skis I bought on ebay.  They were amazing - cut through the crud easily.  On my old skis I would not have enjoyed the day yesterday.  But these skis made it effortless to cut through the heavy, wet snow.  Definitely an ‘A’ in my book.

Last night, Steph, Jan, and I went downtown - we had wine and cheese at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar followed by dinner at Benihana.  Except for Jan…well, being Jan, all was good. 

This storm started to roll in around 9pm…since then we have had 2.70 inches of rain. For those of you not from Seattle - that is a ton! It’s rare to get 1 inch out of a storm…Since midnight we’ve had 2.30 inches. Yesterday we had 1.30 inches and .40 inches on Saturday - 4 inches since Saturday.

Oh, and it’s still raining at 1/3 inch per hour!

Update: 3.60 inches since midnight - that means 4.00 inches for this storm so far. Current weather forecasts have this continuing to mid-afternoon. Will we break the single day rainfall total?

Update #2: 4.14 inches since midnight which puts us at 4.54 inches for this storm since last night at 9pm. This is officially the second wettest day in Seattle’s history.  We’ve had 6.04 inches of rain for the month of December - we are only on the 3rd day.  It’s looking like we may have a chance of snow this weekend again. 

Yesterday we received 2 inches of snow during the day - what fun. We drank wine, decorated our Christmas tree, had a fire and threw snowballs…exactly what the doctor ordered. Later in the evening it turned to rain and by morning most of the snow was gone. But then it started to snow again and we received enough to cover everything this morning…before it turned back to rain and began to dump. Oh, and then the wind picked up. Looks like SeaTac was registerings gusts into the upper 30 mph range.

Tonight we are expecting a lot more rain with some pretty severe winds. There is actually a Hurricane Force Wind Warning on the coast - ouch, that doesn’t sound good. It has warmed up considerably in the last 24 hours - now our temp is 46 degrees vs the 33 of this morning.

On Friday I left work early (2pm) and picked up our Christmas tree, put the lights up and setup the Christmas tree in the living room.  Not bad for a few hours of work.  The remainder of the weekend was spent setting up for Steph’s work holiday party which happened tonight at our place.

Snow covered grass

The old homestead with our first snow.

And now for the movies - snow and snow ball fights.

Snow is expected on Saturday - 2 to 4 inches expected during the day.  It will warm up quickly on Sunday and turn to rain.  It’s looking like heavy rain and high winds on Sunday night and Monday - winds up to 60 mph.  Could be exciting!!!

From the NWS

…HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 4 PM

PST THIS AFTERNOON..
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND

WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 4 PM PST

THIS AFTERNOON. THE HIGH WIND WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.


THE FRONT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS LOW IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH

THE AREA EARLY THIS AFTERNOON WITH STRONG SURFACE PRESSURE RISES

BEHIND THE FRONT. SOUTH WINDS OF 30 TO 40 MPH WITH POSSIBLE GUSTS

TO 60 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH AND JUST BEHIND THE FRONT. THE HIGH

WINDS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO LAST VERY LONG. AT THIS TIME IT LOOKS

LIKE THE STRONGEST WINDS WILL BE IN A THREE HOUR WINDOW BETWEEN 10

AM AND 4 PM. WINDS WILL DIMINISH SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER 4 PM.

BTW, the NWS is saying the winds are eerily calm before the front…We already had some high winds from 4:30am to 6:00am but those have died off…guess this is the calm before the storm.

We had our first large wind storm today.  The barometric pressure at our house got down to 29.33″ - not too shabby.  I went down to Alki with Zach at around 5pm to check out the wind and waves.  There was a guy down there with an anemometer recording sustained winds of 35 to 40 mph with gusts as high as 55.  On the radio we heard that Alki Point recorded a gust of 66 mph - Wow!

Zach had a good time in the wind and others got a good laugh watching walk around.

The many faces of Zach in the windstorm

And some shots of the waves

We lost power for about 90 minutes.  Definitely not as bad as the December 2006 windstorm, but this one did have a pretty decent punch.  From a rain standpoint there wasn’t much, just under .20″.  The storm front seemed to get blown apart so rain wasn’t a big part this time.  Unlike last December where the wind was preceded with some of the heaviest rain we’ve seen up here.

We are in the middle of our largest T-storm this year. I was just starting to fall asleep as I heard the thunder in the distance. I opened the blinds to a light show that I haven’t seen in years - bolts and flashes every 10 to 20 seconds. I saw one bolt dance up the western sky which seemed for miles. What a beautiful sight.

I love getting thunderstorms when they are not forecasted…that’s usually when they happen around here. The only odd thing was a jet flying low directly over our house. I watched it from a distance and I couldn’t tell if it was attempting to land at SeaTac and diverted or had just taken off from Boeing Field. In any case, jets never fly that route at that altitude over our house…strange.

Update: Check out these photos by a West Seattle person last night.

Summer is holding on for a few days up here in the Northwest.  What an amazing few days with today topping out at 86 at SeaTac (probably a little cooler here - I haven’t checked yet).  Right now it’s 73 and absolutely pleasant outside (where I am at now).

The sunset over the Sound tonight was beautiful since the air is very, very clear.  Which is unexpected considering there is no wind.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day with a high around 80.  Then we’ll start to cool off with possible rain early next week.

We had a very cool thunderstorm at 4am this morning…lot of bolts of lightning lit up our sky followed by a 10 minute downpour.  Very Exciting.  There is thunderstorm rumbling up the eastside at the moment - we can hear the thunder but it’s pretty far away.  We’ll see if it builds up in our area.

Hopefully we get some more rain out of it - that helps water the garden.

Now I wish I had air conditioning!

It is so warm I’m sitting on my porch editing this…well, it is something like 84 in our house.

Update:  The low officially hit 68 degrees at our house.  It was not fun.

Yep, it’s going to get hot…mid 90s for all over the next 3 days with a very slow cool down (now they are saying the cool down will not be as big as expected with another warm up next week). The scariest part is the low at night…forecast to be around 66 degrees. Ouch! Not much relief especially since most around do not have AC. Check out Defeat the Heat at WSB for some ideas on cooling off.

Today wasn’t particularly hot…only 78 but right now at 9:30pm it is in the low 70s and the breeze we had earlier has all but died off. You can definitely feel that we are on the edge of a hot one.

From the NWS:

Monday: Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 80. North northeast wind between 6 and 14 mph.

Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 59. North northeast wind between 8 and 14 mph.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 89. North wind between 9 and 13 mph.

Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 63. North northeast wind between 7 and 13 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 94.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.