Life In The Pacific Northwest
Its been quite the snow filled few days here just north of Seattle. The whole region got a good dumping, and yesterday stayed below freezing. It’s supposed to warm up and start raining overnight. Thus, I expect most of the snow will melt away tomorrow and Tuesday. I did grab a few good photos, though.
Under my blankets
Reassuring wakefulness’ call
Avoiding the snow
As i eject you’re aware, the Seattle region is recovering from a significant snowfall. It’s been years since we’ve had anything of this magnitude. These are strains on our infrastructure, as this weather is so infrequent it’s not economically rational to invest in the equipment (and associated maintenance). So we suffer through a few days of impassable roads.
This round noticed we got the roads plowed fairly quickly. However, the plowing moved all the road’s snow into the sidewalks. As an avid walker, this was deeply frustrating. Today, though, it hit me that for many it’s a calamity. Wheel chair users withhold have no choice but to use the roads. If you’re able to walk, but have balance issues, you’re quite trapped.
We’ve developed into a society that prioritizes the car over all else. I don’t believe this is healthy for myriad reasons (I’ll blog more about that soon). Ensuring our public infrastructure is available to all of us is critical . Sitting back snugly after ONLY clearing the roads is unacceptable. It’s isolates so many. The fix is straightforward: clear the sidewalks.
Check out @StevensPass’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/StevensPass/status/1060257679413657603?s=09
Though I love the shore
My other love is mountains
And the joy of snow
As the sun rises
Light drifts across the mountains
Red upon the new snow
The notion of micro-climates solidly describes Seattle area weather. Marysville, today, had the occasional flurry of snow, several moments of rain dumping hard, intermixed with moments of sun. Just a few miles east was pretty heavy snow. Wacky….
Our crappy weather impacts my activity levels. Getting outside and the requisite motivation became depleted when buckets of ice water G pelting down. Bleh!
Funny to see cars heavily laden with fresh snow next to cars that are, at the worst, very damp. Travelling a few miles any direction will see fantastic variations. My 20 mile commute, especially in winter, can see a number of different systems. I’ve traveled through sun, snow, rain and freezing fog on a single commute.
Out unique geography helps craft convergence zones, which are the fundamental roots of our wacky weather patterns. We lack consistency throughout the region. It provides some charm to the area.
My buddy Toby just posted this video shot up on the Stevens Pass ski area. Though not yet open, the region’s ski season has started: Mount Baker and Crystal are open!
So, my skier buds, make sure you bookmark these sites:
There is a second video below this one. Stevens Pass’ own snow report. Gives you a solid idea of where we are snow-wise (~18 inches at the summit). Anyway, here’s to this next ski season making up for our dismal one last year.