We're due for a storm up here. On Monday, the forecast discussion from the National Weather Service said that all of the computer models were unusual agreement about the Fri-Sun environment. The jet stream had dipped out in the Gulf of Alaska, and that meant we were on the express lane for an arctic low.
The description is one I'm familiar with since I grew up in the American Midwest. This is what's called an Alberta Clipper, since in the Midwest the weather pattern described above has the jet-stream dip over the Rockies instead, which meant the weather systems came out of Alberta. Only, this system is, you know, 1500 miles West of where it should be.
Whatcom County is in a special weather enclave itself. If you go to the Google Maps page of Blaine, WA and click Terrain, you can see what I mean. Bellingham is at the south end of the Fraser River valley. That river valley acts as a corridor for cold wind when the weather is right, and it'll be right this weekend. When the low passes over the Cascades, it'll park over eastern Washington and the wind direction will change. This is where the wind will start roaring down the Fraser.
The forecast for the next week is unusually cold, with highs expected to be in the 20's. If we get much snow before that, it'll be a bad thing with all these hilly streets; we'll get a lot of iced up streets. On the good side it should be sunny, so road that gets sun should melt.
The one time I had a friend with a GPS at my house we figured it was around 650 feet. A bit lower than I expected, since we usually got snow when the snow-level dropped to1000ft. There must be something in the microclimate around my house, because we seem to have a virtual elevation of between 900-1200ft. Since the only way to the country road from my house involves three very steep, and shady, hills, it is entirely possible I'll be snowed in until Monday. We'll see.
The description is one I'm familiar with since I grew up in the American Midwest. This is what's called an Alberta Clipper, since in the Midwest the weather pattern described above has the jet-stream dip over the Rockies instead, which meant the weather systems came out of Alberta. Only, this system is, you know, 1500 miles West of where it should be.
Whatcom County is in a special weather enclave itself. If you go to the Google Maps page of Blaine, WA and click Terrain, you can see what I mean. Bellingham is at the south end of the Fraser River valley. That river valley acts as a corridor for cold wind when the weather is right, and it'll be right this weekend. When the low passes over the Cascades, it'll park over eastern Washington and the wind direction will change. This is where the wind will start roaring down the Fraser.
The forecast for the next week is unusually cold, with highs expected to be in the 20's. If we get much snow before that, it'll be a bad thing with all these hilly streets; we'll get a lot of iced up streets. On the good side it should be sunny, so road that gets sun should melt.
The one time I had a friend with a GPS at my house we figured it was around 650 feet. A bit lower than I expected, since we usually got snow when the snow-level dropped to1000ft. There must be something in the microclimate around my house, because we seem to have a virtual elevation of between 900-1200ft. Since the only way to the country road from my house involves three very steep, and shady, hills, it is entirely possible I'll be snowed in until Monday. We'll see.