Winter won't Let Go

Winter just won't let go. Sunday morning, 2 inches, mostly gone by evening. Monday morning, 2 inches, mostly gone by noon. Monday afternoon, 14:00, it's snowing heavily again. Where white covered things six hours ago, there was just a hint of white by noon. Now, about two hours later, everything is coated already again in just the last five minutes.

Have to wonder at the strangeness of the weather this winter. During the 80s, it wasn't unusual to have at least one storm every few years that dumped between a foot and two feet in one storm. The wildest was in December '91, where the storm started just before rush hour. By early evening, there were 4-6 inches on the ground, and more coming. I remember it taking me 90 minutes to get from Wallingford to Kirkland at the start of the storm, then leaving to come home around midnight not to see my home until almost eight hours later. 520 was closed, and though the interstates were still open, you needed to navigate labyrinths of abandoned cars and large trucks unable to move, a most expensive insurance obstacle course.

And it wasn't just Seattle.

I was driving to California the next day, and Portland / Eugene / Medford were all just as white, just as encumbered.

And then, almost nothing. We'd get the occasional storm in the late 90s and into the early 2000s that would hand us about 6 inches, and even get two of those storms in one year.

But nothing like before '91, and certainly nothing like this year, where we've had just under a foot at least twice, and over 4-6 inches maybe half-a-dozen times more. We won't even talk about our little dustings the past few weeks.

Anyone care to take a shot at what they think the summer is going to be like? I'm betting on temps in the 100s for weeks at a time, perhaps with the occasional "raining cats and dogs"...

Any takers?