“You might stock up on food before noon on Friday,” says expert. “I certainly am.”
__________________
6 Feb 2019 – “There is going to be a major snow event over much of the Pacific Northwest starting late Friday and continuing into the weekend,” warns Cliff Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.
Low pressure centered at the southwest corner of the state will pull cold air down from Canada while pushing moist air up into the atmosphere, creating what Mass calls a “perfect snowstorm situation.”
Once the storm begins, says Mass, snowfall will be “extraordinary”, with up to 8 inches over Puget Sound within 24 hours and over a foot on the northern side of the Olympics.
On his “Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog,” Mass explains that he has studied Northwest snowstorms for years and even co-authored a paper on the subject. “What is forecast to occur late Friday and this weekend is absolutely classic,” says Mass. We’re looking at “one of the greatest snow events in decades.”
By 4 AM Saturday, most of western WA will be snowbound, says Mass. with around 4 inches over Seattle and more to the east.
The snow continues into Sunday morning, particularly over Oregon. Roughly a half-foot over Seattle
That’s just the beginning!
A second storm starting Monday could double the snowfall in some regions, leaving the Puget Sound region under an 18- to 24-inch blanket of snow, says Mass. It will be “one of the greatest snow events in decades.” “Unbelievable.” A “snow apocalypse.”
Mass ends on an ever so slightly upbeat note, admitting that “there is a lot of uncertainty for the second event.”
How confident is Mass in the ECMWF forecast?
Nearly all of the forecasts are going for 4-6 inches before Saturday is over, says Mass…some more. But when it comes to the second storm, “roughly 2/3rds of the forecasts are going for a large event (reddish colors-means around a foot of snow). …ending up with around twenty inches by the the middle of next week.
Authorities “need to get prepared for perhaps the snowiest period since the large snowfall of December 1996,””when Seattle received 21 inches,” says Mass. “And yes, you might stock up on food before noon on Friday. I certainly am.”
See Cliff’s entire post:
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/
Thanks to Joe Herr for this link
The post “Snow apocalypse” headed for Pacific Northwest appeared first on Ice Age Now.
via Ice Age Now
February 7, 2019 at 01:19AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 