156 replies to this topic

[bizaleth]

Yeah, it's supposed to get "cold" here on Thursday, too. I have heard grumblings about rain and/or sleet. I have to block out the hysteria surrounding the weather, though, or I get caught up in it.

I will say, though, last February we had a little but of snow/ice. I was supposed to go to a friend's house and turned around because of the roads. I am so accustomed to having salt and sand and whatnot to take care of the slickness. Plus, my old car handled of shit in snow. Not long before that a friend had a get-together at his house. We were getting some of the sloppy wet snow. My friend commented that the only people to show up were Yankees. Us Yankees also went outside to have a snowball fight, but the snow turned to water as soo as you picked it up. I was bummed.

[OldManRay]

wagtail said:

arrghhhh!!!!!

today: 35 celsius [95F], tomorrow: 33, wednesday: 35, thursday: 33

*runs out of thread sobbing*

Those are temperatures I can live with.  And South Australia isn't humid, so 35 doesn't feel that bad.  It's when the temps get above 40 in Adelaide that it starts to suck.

[OldManRay]

merchgrrl said:

It's absolutely beautiful outside! It's been snowing since 4pm yesterday and still going strong. While I do live in Canada, this is Vancouver- so snow is almost as rare here as it is in Seattle.
They get a little silly about snow around here. I've been informed that much of the University may be closed tomorrow.
But-hey-it's pretty out there.

After the snow, the temperature rose to 2C last night and pretty much everything melted by sunrise.  But there could be more on the way today, probably more for you than us.  No chance of a day off work here, unfortunately.  Still, about 30% of the staff at my work have called in "sick" or are working from home today.

[zveozdi]

wagtail said:

arrghhhh!!!!!

today: 35 celsius [95F], tomorrow: 33, wednesday: 35, thursday: 33

*runs out of thread sobbing*

We had those temperatures last week. On friday was so hot and humid it sucked. Now it's kind of cooler and windy, but December's coming soon and living in a humid city like this sucks.

I want my fall back.

[bizaleth]

I would rather deal with "cold" and snowy than 95F.

[OldManRay]

bizaleth said:

I would rather deal with "cold" and snowy than 95F.

Not me, although I'd rather it be cold and snowy than cold and wet (more fun).   Right now it's hailing, or at least I think it is.  Some frozen stuff that doesn't look like snow or sleet is falling.

[bizaleth]

OldManRay said:

Not me, although I'd rather it be cold and snowy than cold and wet (more fun).   Right now it's hailing, or at least I think it is.  Some frozen stuff that doesn't look like snow or sleet is falling.

Could be hail, but I usually think of hail as something that happens during thunderstorms. It could just be "frozen precipitation." They used that term a lot up north. It's just kind of a catch all. Also, hail comes down in a roundish shape and stays in that roundish shape. Frozen precipitation, frozen rain, sleet, ice, ice/snow mix... these don't stay in their original shape. Seattle probably isn't like this since they normally don't get a lot of snow, but midwesterners have a bunch of different terms for snow and ice.

[OldManRay]

bizaleth said:

Also, hail comes down in a roundish shape and stays in that roundish shape.

This wasn't roundish in shape, and looked softer than hail, but denser than sleet.  Frozen precipitation it is, then.

[bizaleth]

OldManRay said:

This wasn't roundish in shape, and looked softer than hail, but denser than sleet.  Frozen precipitation it is, then.

It could also be slush. That's the slushy crap that isn't quite rain and isn't quite snow. That's what we get down here. It's too humid and too warm to get real snow.

[OldManRay]

bizaleth said:

It could also be slush. That's the slushy crap that isn't quite rain and isn't quite snow. That's what we get down here. It's too humid and too warm to get real snow.

No, it wasn't slushy.  When it landed on the window ledge it held a solid but non-spherical shape for a few minutes before melting.

[bizaleth]

OldManRay said:

No, it wasn't slushy.  When it landed on the window ledge it held a solid but non-spherical shape for a few minutes before melting.

Slush'll do that, too. It's almost like snow but it turns to water fairly quickly. Sometimes also called "wet snow." We're brilliant with our terms, eh?

[Felidae]

we are having our first snow today and it started out slush then turned to wet snow. It was slushy in the grass then turned more snow but still not sticking long to the street though did at one point for about an hour. It's sticking to the roof, lawn, trees, ect. Just only some slush in the street now. It's gonna get icy tonight.

[bizaleth]

Felidae said:

we are having our first snow today and it started out slush then turned to wet snow. It was slushy in the grass then turned more snow but still not sticking long to the street though did at one point for about an hour. It's sticking to the roof, lawn, trees, ect. Just only some slush in the street now. It's gonna get icy tonight.

That's the problem with slush, if there isn't equipment to handle it, it'll turn to ice.

[OldManRay]

Ridiculous.  Half an inch of snow in Seattle, and the city is practically paralized.  I stood for half an hour waiting for the bus yesterday before giving up and walking home.  The traffic on I-5 was gridlocked when I crossed it at 7pm, and from the radio reports, that's the case this morning too.  Schools are closed, most people are taking the day off.  Back in 2005, Raleigh shut down after half an inch of snow, but that wasn't really expected - they've known about this snowfall for days, but  it doesn't look like anything was done to the roads to prepare for it.

It's -4C (25F) outside.  Cold.

[Kelly A]

I read where Seattle is on the verge of setting a record for the most precipitation in a month ever.

[inspectorjason]

It's been unseasonably warm here in Atlanta, but that will change over the next few days.   It's going to rain Wednesday/Thursday and then get colder after that.

This will be about the time that I want to pick up my remote control and fast-forward to March.

[OldManRay]

Kelly A said:

I read where Seattle is on the verge of setting a record for the most precipitation in a month ever.

Yep.  We've already had easily the wettest November on record and the wettest month ever recorded at Seatac airport: 15.24 inches (387mm).  The wettest month ever recorded in Seattle was something over 15 inches (in downtown, before Seatac became the official recording station in the 1940's), so if we haven't broken that record yet, we probably will by the end of the month.  The snow is at least a change from all the rain.

[bizaleth]

OldManRay said:

Ridiculous.  Half an inch of snow in Seattle, and the city is practically paralized.  I stood for half an hour waiting for the bus yesterday before giving up and walking home.  The traffic on I-5 was gridlocked when I crossed it at 7pm, and from the radio reports, that's the case this morning too.  Schools are closed, most people are taking the day off.  Back in 2005, Raleigh shut down after half an inch of snow, but that wasn't really expected - they've known about this snowfall for days, but  it doesn't look like anything was done to the roads to prepare for it.

It's -4C (25F) outside.  Cold.

They probably don't have the equipment to handle it. Up north they start putting out a saltwater mixture, sand, etc., before it can freeze. But they have the equipment and budget to do that. Memphis is the same way. Two years ago they had a terrible ice storm (that I got caught in) and all they could do was wait for it to melt. They kept throwing a mix of gravel and salt on the roads and said they were waiting for Mother Nature to do her thing. What they fail to understand is that gravel and sand just get ground into the ice and refreezes in the ice at night -- accomplishing nothing. Salt is what melts the ice and without enough salt (and they didn't have enough), the ice wasn't going to melt. Plus, Memphis has a ridiculously low number of trucks that can thrown down ice and snow. They call them snowplows but they sure has hell didn't look like plows to me. I don't think anyplace in MS has a snowplow or salt/sand truck, so when we got the same ice all we could do was wait for it to melt. Two days after the storm the highway was still 75 to 100% ice covered.

They tell me they don't have the equipment because this only happens every ten years. Sure, that's why it has happened twice in the last three and a half.

Anyway, this is probably the case in Seattle. I think every major city needs go to Chicago and Minneapolis in the winter to learn how to handle snow and ice the right way.

[OldManRay]

bizaleth said:

Anyway, this is probably the case in Seattle.

I think you're right.  I did see one snowplow out this morning, but there isn't really much it can do now, when the danger is from patches of ice here and there.  I thought, though, that at least I-5 (the city's north-south artery) would have had salt or gravel spread on it before the snow came.  But then I also might have expected more people to stay home or leave early yesterday.

[bizaleth]

OldManRay said:

I think you're right.  I did see one snowplow out this morning, but there isn't really much it can do now, when the danger is from patches of ice here and there.  I thought, though, that at least I-5 (the city's north-south artery) would have had salt or gravel spread on it before the snow came.  But then I also might have expected more people to stay home or leave early yesterday.

You might think they could do that, but if they're not used to the snow they woudn't know to do that.

A friend of mine said his normal 25 minute commute took four hours last night.