"Eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we may be meteorologically bitchslapped." ...O RLY?
On Wednesday morning, all of Seattle was wondering, "Where's the snow we were warned about?!??" The local meteorologists, in a scramble to explain things to a mob armed with jeers and invective, said that the worst of the weather had passed us over because Seattle was in a "weather doughnut".
To anyone who's seen the movie "The Day After Tomorrow", that was *NOT* a comforting analogy.
After the snow that did come Thursday night, we cautiously ventured forth once more. We were, said the weatherpeople, going to be hit by two more storms. We should prepare for the worst. High winds, more snow, freezing rain. Expect power and water outages. Expect roads to be impassible (this in a city that had a chance to buy snowplows inexpensively, but decided that Seattle didn't need snowplows.) We bought drinking water, ice melt, sand, generators, candles, batteries, flashlights, food, medical supplies, blankets, extra medications...you name it. We stripped store shelves all over Western Washington. We ran frantic last-minute errands if we absolutely positively had to. And we prepared for the worst.
...which didn't come. We got more snow - about another inch - and some winds. The clouds were so low and thick, and the snow so all-encompassing, that the collective city lights reflected back off the clouds, and off of the snow, and back off of the clouds...the light last night at 1pm looked more like early evening on a moonless night. I could have read a page printed in 18-point font - outside, in my unlit back yard - from just the ambient light. It was weird.
Forecasters are calling for a 30-70% chance of snow every day through the weekend, with temperatures warming only slightly...until December 25. Then, the temperatures might get up to the low 40s. We may be able to get around safely next weekend. (Maybe. Maybe. I'm still contemplating walking down to my local auto store and buying a set of snow chains - or SOMETHING to help with traction as I make my very few around-town errands.) But currently, we've got snow, we're not paralyzed but we're close, and we didn't get the power outages that we were all expecting. The light snow showers throughout the week may deposit enough snow to be picturesque, but not enough to snap power lines or utterly close any (more) roads. The temperature is going to steadily rise up out of the 20s to merely "freezing", to "above freezing" just in time for December 24.
Not a bad holiday weather forecast.
