Weather Chat - 2023

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:18:06+00:00

A few hard frosts lately, but spring is taking hold for sure.

janell

Juliarugula similar weather here. It was 65 and sunny at lunch. The wind is howling now though and the low tonight is 25.

PNWGal

AndreaB Amazing comeback on the birch! So glad the ice melted off this afternoon. Very pretty but not something to live with.

AndreaB

PNWGal as much as I hated to have the tree “resting” on our wires, I do believe it helped them from snapping. Woke up to a power outage this morning, so the fun continues!

Dahlia53

no snow here but it's 24 degrees, wind chill of 14F - glad i rescued the one tub of saran wrapped dahlias out of storage. they're in the bathtub since the bathroom is the coldest room in the apt. @AndreaB - I hope your poor birch will be ok - ice storms are beautiful but so hard on trees (and people)

calico20hill

15 degrees this morning! Its a long time since I have experienced that cold here in the Pacific NW.
Totally beautiful morning with yesterday's snow still on the trees and the sky perfectly clear. Yesterday I looked out at my garden and saw that the raised beds looked like loaves of cake with white icing spread beautifully thick and even. It will be interesting to see what the tubers I left in the bed's are like. I think I had dug all the most important ones to save but there were a lot still out there. It is an experiment....

Teddahlia

Noni: Todays numbers may prove that you are colder than us in Oregon City. We were in the low 20s , perhaps 22 while you were 7 or 8 degrees cooler. 98% of the time our temps are very close to each other but when the wind howls down the Columbia River bringing cold air with it, you can get colder as you are closer to the river.

HiDahlia

AndreaB Beautiful. Reminds me of a favorite poem, Birches by Robert Frost.

After a week of Flash Flood Watches and Warnings we now have just…rain. February is generally not the best time to visit if you’re looking for sun.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm.

calico20hill

Yes, I think we were very cold and the air is very dry. I have seldom seen the sky so blue!That persists today. The sun sparkling on the snow is amazing and I do not remember seeing that diamond clarity in Puget Sound snow. We are gong to head out for an appt soon, and that will be our first time out on the roads for several days. Yesterday our post office did not even get mail from Portland! The local workers made it in but Portland was a no go. I hope it gets through today.We did not get quite as much snow as parts of Portland...8.5" for us and severl more for the city.I've only seen one car go by on our road today.

calico20hill

Krista

calico20hill I just love seeing the sparkly snow up in the mountains when we're backpacking - this looks beautiful. I love the silence that snow brings too - I hope you made it safely to and from our appt and that you're able to enjoy your cozy winter snow-blanket!

calico20hill

Krista Thank you, Krista. Yes. the roads were mostly clear except slippery in the shadow of some trees along the roadside but we have 4-wheel drive and that worked. SNow blanket melted a lot during the brilliant sunshine but its back down to 28 degrees now and going colder this evening. Normally I would be busy potting up what ever tubers I have in the Greenhouse but decided to wait until mid March this year, so its just odds and ends growing...A few packages of seeds started just to have something growing. Once this storm goes away and the forecast looks more normal I will get into action in the greenhouse!

SteveM

I learned a new word tonight. The news said we are expecting "graupel" tonight. "Graupel" are soft, small pellets formed when supercooled water droplets (at a temperature below 32°F) freeze onto a snow crystal, a process called riming. If the riming is particularly intense, the rimed snow crystal can grow to an appreciable size, but remain less than 0.2 inches." Graupel on!

calico20hill

SteveM How's the Graupel, Steve? I saw LA had snow. Crazy!

We have a few inches left and it been so quiet , weatherwise that theireis still snow sitting on the branches of the trees. IT will be freezing up again soon as the sun slips behind the mountains.

calico20hill

Graupel on, Steve! The weather is keeping us from being bored with this end of winter! MAybe Graupel is that super sparkly stuff I was noticing today? If you get grapelled but have sunshine tomorrow tell me if your world is covered in diamond dust also.

We are back down to 27 degrees now so its super crunchy out. It will probably drop a bit lower.

AKWindWatcher

I'm beyond excited that it will be clear and back below zero tonight. This time of year we start getting random storms of mixed precipitation. Yesterday it warmed up to 32 which meant that it got sloppy on the roads. Roads that promptly froze into skating rinks overnight. Queue multiple pile ups, lots of folks taking their morning meetings in the medians etc. (Side note: when one of the pile ups involves an armored truck it's AMAZING how many law enforcement officers show up.) Once it goes back to clear & cold, all the moisture gets sucked right outta the road and things will be smooth sailing again.

Krista

AKWindWatcher "Side note: when one of the pile-ups involves an armored truck" 😆 Funny how priorities get allocated ...

Krista

AKWindWatcher Also hoping you're back to smooth sailing soon, and safely!

AKWindWatcher

Krista - Plus, colder temps are better for the sled dogs. Today was the first day of the Fur Rondy race. ( I help trail guard for that.) 25 miles per day, 3 days. All within the city limits of Anchorage. Teams of up to 20 dogs running 23-28 mph. The puppers get really hot when it's too warm and soft trails are hard to run on.

Krista

AKWindWatcher gosh, finding out the dogs are running 25-28 mph for 25 miles a day for 3 days blew my mind. That sounded like so fast, and for so long! I hopped right down a Google rabbit hole about sled dogs which was fascinating. For this race to take place entirely within Anchorage (🤯) does the city shut down? And what are the responsibilities of a trail guard?! And, do you also have a team of dogs and compete?

AKWindWatcher

Krista - Yup. These are sprint dogs so very different from the distance dogs that run the Iditarod or the Yukon Quest which are different from the dogs used for freight hauling or - like up in Denali - for park ranger patrols. The city doesn't shut down at all. Police help stop traffic when teams need to cross roads (the route starts downtown) but most of it is run on trails. The job of us guards is to both protect the teams and help when needed. We are stationed at checkpoints all along the 25 miles. Yesterday I helped with a tangle that happened during a pass and prevented a fat tire biker from heading down the mushing trail. Today, I stood on the sled break while a musher switched out leaders and kept eyes on a moose that was VERY close to the trail. I don't have a team myself - it's very expensive and my hobby is dahlias. But I have a husky (freight hauling bloodlines) and will always have at least one for skijoring.

SteveM

calico20hill No... no grappling with graupel for me. I stuck my head out the door to check about 2AM but, alas, only rain. If I was grauppeld on, I missed it.

Stay safe on those icy roads!

AKWindWatcher

SteveM One of the volunteers for the Fur Rondy is from San Luis Obispo. She was showing me pictures of the snow on the mountains visible from her house. Pretty incredible!

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