Tuesday, November 23, 2010

November 23 Looking At A Warm Clear Blue Texas Morning While Washington Freezes At 19 Degrees

Looking out my window at the pool through the bars of my patio prison cell this morning, Tuesday, November 23, at a clear blue Texas sky, currently 3 degrees shy of 60.

Meanwhile up in my old home zone Washingtonians are in a deep freeze of 19 degrees, with roads iced over, schools closed, power out, more snow expected, with a very rare blizzard scheduled to slam Eastern Washington today.

It is a little unusual to get this type of heavy duty winter weather action in the lowlands of Washington before the arrival of winter. I do remember a heavy duty storm, back in the 1990s, known as the Thanksgiving Day Storm. If I remember right this was a Pineapple Express Storm, courtesy of El Nino, or was it El Nina, that dumped a lot of snow in the mountains and rain in the lowlands, and then rising temperatures melting snow in the Cascades, which caused epic flooding.

I recollect sandbagging way past midnight to save downtown Mount Vernon from getting flooded. And then when the Skagit River reached its crest point the next morning it suddenly dropped a couple feet. A dike had broken down river.

And then 2 weeks later it all happened again, another massive flood. I don't remember if it was the first flood or the second one that sank the I-90 Floating Bridge.

Anyway, weather drama is way different in Washington than Texas weather drama. Texas weather drama can be very sudden and very violent. Washington weather drama can play out over days, with a slow build ending in a big mess.

I suspect I will not be experiencing any weather drama in Texas today.

3 comments:

Betty Jo Bouvier said...

Thirteen degrees in Sedro-Woolley. Two hour late start for our schools. Employees are expected to be on time as best they can considering the road conditions. You know how I hate driving in the snow, Durango!

Durango said...

Betty Jo, that is too cold. Last time it got that cold, whilst I lived in Mount Vernon, when the thaw came I heard an explosive noise. A pipe in the basement had frozen and then burst when the thaw came. You should not be out driving in this. I hate snow driving, too. Is this being record breaking early for this severe of storm???

Roger the engineer said...

Durango:
Just took my new-grad (actually, last-December grad) son to Everett from Aledo to work for "a major aerospace company"
He survived the drive to and from work yesterday (A minor miracle, since he hates driving, and considering the driving methods of the people up there).He said it was 27 degrees and snowing on the way home.
Quite a change from Las Cruses NM and North Texas for him...
Was NOT planning on going to work today, based on weather.