Aurora

Do I overuse the word WOW? Probably so. Anyway, there's this great show of 10 slides of the Aurora. You've really got to check it out. WOW! Click here and enjoy. Cheers, j

Forecasters: Storm to be 'life-threatening'

The latest out of the Seattle media is that the impending storm is "life threatening." Them's pretty strong words. Click here to read their spin. Click the small graphic above to see a larger version. We've been reading a lot about this event all day. It's pretty substantial, that's for sure. The jetstream is as distended as I've seen it in a long time. Meanwhile, there's a really solid tropical moisture feed on tap--in fact they are calling this a "major extratropical storm." It sure looks promising. As I write this the Olympic Peninsular is under a blizzard warning. Go to the Seattle NWS and click on their Powerpoint presentation. If you have Flash player, the show has audio, too. Seattle is really hunkering down.

Meanwhile Up in the Idaho Panhandle, this last round smacked hard:

Wednesday and Thursday dropped a total of 33 inches of snow on Coeur d'Alene, breaking a two-day record of 20 inches set in 1922.

The storm also broke a record for the most snow during a 24-hour period in Coeur d'Alene as 25 inches fell between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday. The old 24-hour record was 16 inches in 1955. Records have been kept since 1895.

Some solstice, eh?

WOW--how 'bout that photo of Mt. Rainier during the onset of this last awesome episode?
The Intermountain West pretty well got stuccoed in the past few days. Code Red in Spokane with over 2 feet on the ground. And even Vegas got paralyzed, albeit with only 3.6 inches of white stuff. Key SNOTELs in Arizona are showing 40+ inches. The headwaters of the Virgin above Utah's Zion is at 40 inches. Real good looking snowpack numbers for the Winter Solstice. We should enter the New Year with a snowpack at or above average. Why? Well, here are some Friday morning snippets from various NWS Offices--you be the judge:

(POCATELLO)A POTENT LOW IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INLAND FROM THE NORTHERN PACIFIC AND SPREAD MOISTURE OVER THE REGION BEGINNING SUNDAY NIGHT. SNOW IS EXPECTED THROUGHOUT THE FORECAST AREA INTO MONDAY BEFORE THE SYSTEM WEAKENS AND MOVES INTO THE GREAT PLAINS.EXPECT SIGNIFICANT SNOW AMOUNTS WITH THIS SYSTEM ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

(MISSOULA)SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY...A MOIST PACIFIC SYSTEM WILL MOVE INTO THE NORTHERN ROCKIES ON SUNDAY BRINGING THE POTENTIAL FOR WIDESPREAD SNOWFALL TO THE AREA. WEDNESDAY THROUGH CHRISTMAS DAY...A STRONGER PACIFIC SYSTEM WILL DROP DOWN FROM THE GULF OF ALASKA EARLY NEXT WEEK AND BEGIN TO IMPACT THE NORTHERN ROCKIES BY CHRISTMAS EVE. THIS SYSTEM WILL BRING EVEN MORE PACIFIC MOISTURE TO THE AREA THAN THE PREVIOUS ONE ANOTHER ROUND OF WIDESPREAD SNOW THROUGH CHRISTMAS DAY.

(ELKO)LONG TERM...SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY. OVERALL...THE EXTENDED REMAINS QUITE STORMY. THE PERIOD STARTS WITH A POTENT CLOSED LOW DUMB-BELLING SOUTHEASTWARD FROM THE NORTHEAST PACIFIC SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY. LOOKS LIKE A GOOD MOISTURE FEED AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM SO KEPT HIGH POPS AND SNOWFALL TOTALS. STILL LOOKS LIKE THIS COULD BE THE FIRST WARNING EVENT OF THE SEASON FOR NORTHEASTERN NEVADA SNOWFALL-WISE.

(Portland) ATTENTION THEN TURNS TO THE NEXT RATHER STRONG PACIFIC FRONTAL SYSTEM THAT WILL APPROACH SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND MOVE THROUGH OUR FORECAST AREA SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY. THIS COULD BE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT STORM SINCE EARLY JANUARY 2004.

(Seattle)THIS WILL BE ANOTHER NIGHTMARE IN TRYING TO TARGET SNOW AMOUNTS. KITSAP/HOOD CANAL ESPECIALLY SHOULD GET HAMMERED...COULD SEE 1.5 FEET OF SNOW IN SPOTS...MAYBE MORE.

(Boise)...AGREE ON A BREAK THROUGH OF THE WESTERLIES ACROSS THE PACIFIC INTO THE INTERMOUNTAIN AREA WITH AMPLE OVER-RUNNING MOISTURE IN THE SATURDAY NIGHT TO SUNDAY NIGHT TIME FRAME. IT APPEARS THAT THE BULK OF THE PRECIPITATION WOULD FALL SUNDAY WITH VALLEY AND MOUNTAIN AREAS PICKING UP CONSIDERABLE AMOUNTS OF WET SNOW.

(Note--Photo above by Tim Thompson, obtained from KOMO News in Seattle. For personal use only.)

Some solar news

(Edited 4 times--Last on 24DEC @ 7 am) We last edited this post on December 17--a week ago. That was a couple of days after a purported CME took place on the back side of the sun. A CME is a Coronal Mass Ejection. There was some excited chatter about it on Spaceweather.com and then the whole topic totally disappeared. Now there's new chatter about something soon to rotate into view, probably 26DEC. It sure looks to me like it's in the same location as the purported CME. Anywho, it's going to be interesting to see exactly what it really is and who it affects solar emissions. You can read all about it on Spaceweather, linked at left.

Play calling genius!

Our favorite team, The Pacific Precipitators, generally crushes its perennial opponent, The Lower 48. The Precipitator Coach has a tremendous playbook, especially of trick plays. The Precipitator offense loves to take a pigskin filled with water across the Lower 48 line and stuff it in the endzone. This is Old School football, and it's measured in inches and feet, not yards. A first down is one foot. The Precipitators love to rack up first downs as they push their wad o' water downstream, er, downfield. The play illustrated above is one of the classics called the Pineapple Pipeline. The Precipitator QB takes the pigskin in a shotgun snap and scoots through a vicious block by his left tackle and guard. Meanwhile, the right flanker runs wide left. As the Lower 48 backfield closes in, the QB pitched off a lateral to teh flanker who then heads downfield unmolested. It's quite the play and we're about to see yet another rendition of this time-honored classic in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Olde Airy Zonie finally finally got a gobsmack from the Precipitators.

NEW SNOWFALL AMOUNTS REPORTED AS OF 530 AM MST INCLUDE...

FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT ............ 8.2 INCHES.
BELLEMONT .................... 6.4 INCHES.
MUNDS PARK ................... 12 INCHES.
HART PRAIRIE .................. 9 INCHES.

Stay tuned, sportsfans, we ain't seen the best yet!

Is it real or "Snopocalypse"

Arizona is progged to get the next slap in the face from this multi-faceted storm. Check this morning's Flagstaff warning:

SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 12 TO 25 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY LATE TUESDAY ACROSS THE KAIBAB PLATEAU AND THE SOUTH FACING SLOPES OF THE MOGOLLON RIM. EIGHT TO 16 INCHES ARE EXPECTED OVER THE YAVAPAI COUNTY MOUNTAINS...AND 6 TO 12 INCHES OVER BLACK MESA..DEFIANCE PLATEAU..CHUSKA MOUNTAINS..AND THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.

Lately, the weather forecasting industry has been crying wolf a tad too often. A blogger in Seattle coined this phenomena "snopocalypose." You can read her comments here.

One thing's fairly certain--federal snow measuring stations don't lie. They may malfunction but they don't lie or exaggerate. Use the SNOTEL link at left. Click on the state of your choice. Then click on the map's remote sensing site of your choice. Next, click on Snow Depth as reported hourly for the past 7 days. Scroll to the bottom of the data for the latest readings.