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andycottle
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#5581 Postby andycottle » Fri May 20, 2005 4:00 pm

Last of the short waves....?

Good afternoon all. Unfourntunely....looks like the last short wave of the day and this may be the last chance of thunder storms this afternoon. :( Lets hope some more fire up before the day is over! -- Andy
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#5582 Postby andycottle » Fri May 20, 2005 5:53 pm

Hey guys...I just had shower band come through!And right before it came through you just see the wall of moderate rain! There was also a short period of breezy winds too. Looks like maybe another round cells are on there way. -- Andy
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TT-SEA

#5583 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 8:44 pm

Issaquah has been the bullseye today.

Almost .75 for the day and a peak rate of 1.36/hr around noon.

Pretty impressive.
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#5584 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 8:57 pm

Hey guys...I was in the right place at the right time today! At about 5:15pm a line of thunderstorms moved from the east shore of Puget Sound and climaxed right over Kent and the East Hill. Where I was, we actually witnessed a rotating wall cloud. That thing was very close to spawning a tornado. Shortly after the wall cloud passed the sky opened up and it rained and hailed hard enough to where you would be soaking wet in less than 5 seconds if you stood in it! Then came the beautiful bolts of lightning. A very nice show for sure. I will post pix of the wall cloud later. It looked just like the clouds you see in the midwest with tornados!

Weathergirl...1977 is a poor match because California was bone dry and we did not have nearly this wet of a spring. 1981 was also much too dry in Cal and Mar - May was not nearly wet enough here. It is very tough to find a good match to this year, but there a few.

TT...We have had much better thunderstorms in the past than what you have witnessed since you have lived here. I remember several all nighters when I was a kid. I mean the type that come after a hot day and the lightning branches across the sky. You cannot tell me that even the storm in June of last year was not impressive! Here is a link to some pix to refresh your memory!

http://www.komotv.com/news/story_m.asp?ID=31784

That sure does not look like a 1 to me.
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#5585 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 9:16 pm

The temperatures have finally gone below normal! The models are unanamous in showing a shot of unseasonably cool air coming in behind this weekends cold front. Next week looks mostly dry and cool with brisk N to NW winds. Not surprising after such a long wet period. On Monday and Tuesday nights we have 850mb temps near 0 with possible clear skies. Could be some deliciously crisp nights. :eek:
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TT-SEA

#5586 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 9:29 pm

Same line is moving over us now.

Also looks like a PSCZ is trying to form as winds finally shift to westerly as a piece of the semi-permanent trough pushes inland.. That is different from the last few days.

No thunder or hail here. Just some heavy rain.

Dude... you would drop dead from excitement if you saw some of the storms I lived through growing up in MN. I remember one really bad one hit us on July 15, 1980. We had 120 mph winds (no official tornado in our neighborhood) and it ripped the roofs off most of the houses within a 2-mile radius. We had hundreds of trees down in our small, wooded neighborhood. You could not drive a car down the street for 3 days. The power was out for 2 weeks.

I was at a little league game around 5 pm when it started brewing. The sky turned a horrible green as I raced home on my bike. It was dead calm at the time. Then the civil defense sirens started screaming. It is always freaky when its dead calm and the sirens are blaring away.

I got home with about 5 minutes to spare. My parents forced us down into the basement... but I found a way back upstairs to check out the action. The sound was incredible. Like the house was going to be ripped from the foundation. I watched two trees crush our neighbors house and I RAN back downstairs. We huddled in a corner for about 10 minutes and then it went quiet.

After going back upstairs we found out we were the lucky ones on the block. We lost most of our trees but the house was structural sound. Lots of shingles and siding ripped off... but it was still standing. Nobody on our street was so lucky. It was like a war zone.

People were standing around crying and hugging.

For the next two weeks all you heard was chainsaws and bulldozers. The trees in my parent's neighborhood are just now returning to the height they were back in 1980.

I was also very close to a massive tornado more recently in Ladysmith, Wisconsin (where I have many relatives) on Labor Day in 2002.

We were just about to head back to Minneapolis when it hit. We were east of town and the tornado ripped right through downtown destroying most of the business district.

Here are two pictures from the damage...

Image

Image


I have MANY stories. Like the incredible storm that hit on the night of my sister's wedding back in 1999. Or the tornado that hit my summer camp and destroyed most of the buildings while we were there.


Like I said... this weather is fun. But relatively tame.

As I wrote this message the sun has returned to North Bend!!
Last edited by TT-SEA on Fri May 20, 2005 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#5587 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 10:16 pm

I will say that weather would be too much for me. I am much more of a cold weather fan than severe weather. I do like getting storms, but I do not want a steady diet of them. There is absolutely no doubt that I cherish the period we normally get every year when it is just dry and clear for days on end. I actually like the opportunity to forget about weather and recharge my batteries for fall and winter. It begins to feel too opressive when it is couldy and muggy in the summer. I just hope that this is not one of our ugly wet summers. In 1856 we had a total of 14 inches of rain in June and July. That would really suck!

As far as cold though. Bring it on! I love standing in 50mph winds when the temps are in the 20s. It is so invigorating! The conditions were commonly like that when I used to go visit Snoqualmie falls during cold winters. Just wait until you see that!
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#5588 Postby R-Dub » Fri May 20, 2005 10:17 pm

Just getting HAMMERED by rain right now!! Very heavy rain for over 20 min now.

Safe to say the drought is dead here :wink:
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#5589 Postby AnthonyC » Fri May 20, 2005 10:20 pm

Fairly quiet up here in Mukilteo. Aside from a few passing showers, no thunder/lightning for the first time in three days. We had one bout of gusty winds that caused the power to flicker a couple of times, but all in all a quiet day.

Viewing latest satellite images, another storm is forming off the coast. With an impressive 150+ jet stream, another surface low is beginning to develop. The ETA and GFS are in some disagreement on the development/track of this next low...the ETA keeps it further off shore and weaker, while the GFS brings it further inland and stronger. In any event, Saturday night/Sunday morning looks fairly wet and breezy...downright windy along the coast.

After that, the weather finally begins to quiet down...though not completely. The GFS once again reintroduced the idea of a strong ridge of high pressure building next week...but the past two runs have done a flip-flop and show a continued zonal, progressive flow.

In fairness, it's time for some warmer/drier weather...we've had wet weather the past few weeks...let's have a little give-and-take.

Anthony
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#5590 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 10:20 pm

R-Dub... looks like a great PSCZ up there.

What is your total for the day?
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#5591 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 10:22 pm

I suppose the closest thing we get to the type of weather you were refering to is those mountain wave wind events. In December 2003 the areas just a few miles to the east of me had 100mph winds and it was like a war zone too. I went up around Lake Retreat and power poles were broken off, lines were laying on the ground, there were trees through houses, and it was a pure mess. More widespread than the stuff you are talking about, but not as total of destruction in any one place. I wish I had taken some pix of all of that. I have no doubt that you will eventally see some weather that will impress you. I would have to say the number one impressive thing this area has had in the past is the monster snowstorms. We can only hope we see those again. To see the expression on everyones faces will be priceless!
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#5592 Postby R-Dub » Fri May 20, 2005 10:26 pm

Thunder now rocking the house, with still very heavy rain and now hail mixed in!!

TT, not sure what my rainfall is, my school net site at Camp Kiloqua just across the street from me is down, and I don't want to go out to check my own, would get soaked in an instant :lol:
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#5593 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 10:28 pm

I agree on the impressive snowstorms of the past.

There have been a few amazing months in Seattle since records have been kept. And probably even more in the Little Ice Age prior to the 1800s.

I very much doubt that will ever happen again in our lifetime.

Were you here in January of 1969?
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#5594 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 10:29 pm

Can't wait to hear your total. :D
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#5595 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 10:33 pm

TT...I was 4 years old in Jan 69. That was when I fell in love with weather, and snow. I opened the door to our house and the snow was at eye level with me.

Anthony, I actually agree with you. I could use a week on nice weather, but coolish would be OK with me. :D

The red just continues to show up on the radar! I have never seen so much in a three day period.
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#5596 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 10:45 pm

Assuming we get another .09 at the airport in the next 10 days... this will be the 7th time since 1948 that Sea-Tac has exceeded 3 inches of rain in the month of May.

If we get really lucky and get another .79 in the next 10 days... this will be the wettest May since at least 1948.

We are also closing in on normal rainfall for the January-May period. We are balancing out our dry period very nicely to even out for the calendar year.
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#5597 Postby andycottle » Fri May 20, 2005 10:50 pm

Note to Snow wizzard.. :)

You said that you saw lightning, hail, heavy rain. And also you mentioned that you saw a rotating wall cloud. That is definally something you would be wise to call into the Seattle NWS if you were a weather spotter, Snow wizzard. They need to know thoes weather events!

Have you ever thought of becoming a spotter, Snow wizzard? It`s really easy to attend them. They also show video and tell you what kind of weather you should look when scanning for any kind of severe weather.

-- Andy
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#5598 Postby R-Dub » Fri May 20, 2005 10:58 pm

Rain has finally eased, but still plenty of thunder rocking the house :eek:
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#5599 Postby TT-SEA » Fri May 20, 2005 11:01 pm

So whats the total??? :D
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#5600 Postby snow_wizzard » Fri May 20, 2005 11:03 pm

Andy...I think I am putting that on my to do list this year. I have wanted to be a spotter for a while.

I saw some airplanes today that looked like those planes they use to go into hurricanes. I am thinking those lucky guys were up there chasing the really good cells today. They would certainly gather some very valuable information about what makes the storms tick around here.

One very interesting difference between this year and 1993 is the fact that much of the severe weather was north of Seattle that year. I remember two convergence zone enhanced thunderstorms that were beyond belief that year. On one of them the airmass was every bit as moist and unstable as it's been the past few days, and that was mixed with a decent C zone. Talk about a wicked storm! In Bothell it rained 2.5 inches in an hour and a parking lot got so flooded that cars were completely submerged! I remember seeing as many as 5 lightning bolts per minute. That was really something. Those really bad storms were in July, so who knows what kind of severe weather we may still see this year. One thing that was very striking before that 93 storm was that their appeared to be some kind of a milky veil around the clouds, about an hour before all hell broke loose. That is the only time I have seen anything like that.
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