Is it going to QUIT or????

It appears that the snow is messing with us.

Poor Bill Cross, the Town Maintenance “guy” is really putting in some hours, keeping our few streets as clean as he can. Between the compact ice and snow, it’s getting tougher as time passes.

Hopefully…See the rest on our Forums.

We Survived

I think the windstorm we had a couple of days ago was worse than the 2006 windstorm.

In 2006 it was very wet and in a one or two hour period, 52 trees fell across HWY 2 between Index and Four Lanes.

This year was not as wet but the wind was more powerful than the 2006 storm..

What’s your input? Leave a comment if you can please.

We lost power for 23 hours and 45 minutes and phone lines were still dead at 9pm last night (they are up now)…

Alert: Weather Change

copy and paste from AccuWeather.com

..A SWITCH TO AN ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN WILL OCCUR THE END OF THIS WEEK… …THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON IS POSSIBLE IN THE MOUNTAINS LATE THIS WEEKEND OR EARLY NEXT WEEK…

THE DRY AND TRANQUIL WEATHER OF LATE WILL COME TO AN END THURSDAY. THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF PACIFIC STORMS WILL BRING A THREAT OF RAIN TO THE AREA THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL BE FAIRLY WEAK…WITH MUCH OF THE ACTION STAYING TO OUR NORTH. ANOTHER WEAK SYSTEM WILL PASS MAINLY TO OUR SOUTH ON SATURDAY.

ALAS…THE STORM TO WATCH WILL BE THE ONE DUE TO AFFECT THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY. THIS SYSTEM PROMISES TO BRING A PERIOD OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN TO THE AREA AS WELL AS WINDY CONDITIONS. THIS STORM WILL BE FAST MOVING…WITH THE FRONT EXPECTED TO SWEEP ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON DURING THE DAY SUNDAY.

THE STRONG FRONT WILL USHER IN A COLDER AIR MASS…RESULTING IN SNOW LEVELS FALLING TO NEAR 3500 FEET BY EARLY MONDAY. THUS SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED TO IMPACT ALL OF THE MAJOR CASCADE PASSES. STRONG AND MOIST WESTERLY FLOW COMBINED WITH AN UNSTABLE AIR MASS COULD RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL IN THE MOUNTAINS…ESPECIALLY THE CASCADES…SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY.

THOSE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES…ESPECIALLY IN THE MOUNTAINS… SHOULD STAY TUNED TO THE LATEST UPDATES FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ON THIS UPCOMING EVENT. BE PREPARED FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF WINTRY WEATHER CONDITIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS LATE THIS WEEKEND AND EARLY NEXT WEEK.

December 13-14 Is For Star Gazers

For those interested, if we are lucky enough to have a clear view, the Geminids meteor shower(s) will be visible in Western Washington on Decemeber 13th & 14th.

Word has it that there will be 75-100 meteors per hour.

I have personally noticed an increase in the early a.m. already of this phenomenon. We’ve seen about one or two at random intervals for the past 3 days.

POSSIBLE WINDY WEATHER HEADING OUR WAY

Issued by The National Weather Service
Seattle/Tacoma, WA
4:57 pm PST, Tue., Nov. 3, 2009

… WINDY CONDITIONS FOR THE MOUNTAINS… COAST… AND NORTHERN INTERIOR THURSDAY…

A STRONG PACIFIC FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL IMPACT WESTERN WASHINGTON ON THURSDAY. BREEZY SOUTHEASTERLY WINDS ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT WILL BECOME SOUTH-SOUTHWEST ON THURSDAY FOR THE NORTH INTERIOR AND COAST INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUST AS HIGH AS 50 MPH.

WINDS JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE WILL BE VERY STRONG ON THURSDAY. RIDGETOP WINDS FOR THE OLYMPICS AND LOWER SOUTH FACING SLOPES WILL RANGE FROM 45 TO 65 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS POSSIBLE. RIDGETOP WINDS ALONG THE SOUTHERN SLOPES OF THE CASCADES WILL ALSO BE WINDY… WITH SUSTAINED WINDS UP TO 50 MPH POSSIBLE. THE STRONG WINDS WILL ALSO BE ACCOMPANIED BY HEAVY RAINS… COMBINING FOR DANGEROUS CONDITIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS.

STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST FORECAST UPDATES.

Looks Like NO STORM

Just in from David. Thanks again David.

The 3 a.m. weather forecast has the flood threat going away, as the storm combination was shown by the models as now being delayed and thus not coming together. They will have another model run out in the 9 a.m. forecast to confirm this, but at present it looks as though it will be wet but not a flooding event. Excellent!

http://www.atmos.washington.edu./data/disc_report.html

SEVERE WEATHER ALERT

This just in from David Cameron. Thanks for the information Dave.

http://www.atmos.washington.edu./data/disc_report.html

Check the short term and hydrology sections especially from the morning forecast. Forecasts update around 3 p.m. and a.m. and 9 a.m. Substantial rain from typhoon remnants + Gulf of Alaska storm meet and may come our way with very high freezing level and hefty amounts of precipitation.

Weather Information From David Cameron, PhD.

I had asked some questions in the February ’09 newsletter that went out this morning and got a prompt answer from a Town Historian, David Cameron, PhD. Thanks David. You are always a great source of information.

Following are the answers.
———————-
On snow and weather: I keep track of the weather for my own use, as my instruments are not sophisticated electronic ones but rather of the backyard type. Our total precipitation for 2008 was 99.915″ approximately: 20.21″ in our always-wettest month of November and 13.305″ for for December. Your results may vary, obviously. November is our normal flooding month in the western Cascades. Normally I forget to total the numbers at the end of the month and year, but Louise asked for an article she’s writing.

Index Avenue is 100′ wide, but that’s the exception and we’ve been told to include room for an anticipated railway branch line off the GN right-of-way up the north side of the North Fork Sky. It never was constructed, as the Index-Galena logging railroad went up the south side instead from its mill, also on the south side across the bridge. You can check the other street widths on the townsite plat map in Town Hall if interested.

On the Redmen’s Hall sorry collapse: The demolition company gave to the Index Historical Society a number of the floor joists, rather than hauling them off with the rest of the smashed up debris. They are 2″x12″ fir, most of them 26′ long, and in pretty good shape. Those of us who volunteered on very short notice to lug them off the street and through the snow for storage still are feeling the aches and pains — at least I am.

Bob Hubbard joked the next day that he was feeling “two inches shorter.”
So now the question is, what do we do with them that best will honor the memory of the missing hall?

Suggestions have ranged from creating new picnic tables to replace the rotted out ones on the museum grounds to constructing a stage in the park (perhaps) for arts festival performances to creating an outline of the building somewhere so that people can retain a feeling of how large it was. We really would like folks to share their thoughts and let the historical society members know. (They also can volunteer to pull nails!)

Photos: Flooding In Washington

The following photos were extracted from a PowerPoint Slide Show.  There aren’t any photos really from the local end, but they are interesting none the less.

01.18.09 – WE GOOFED!!!  We added even more photos today (13) courtesy of Heidi Ludwig.  I personally had them on my flash drive and forgot about them.  All of her photos were emailed to us and they are all of Snohomish.  Snohomish got hit pretty hard during the flooding (maybe not as bad as Pacific but it was bad).  Thank you Heidi for being one of our out of town reporters.

[Show as slideshow]

FYI On The Mudslide at Index

I was crusing the net a few minutes ago to see if there was anything new to report on the mudslide. I ran in to an interesting discussion that was turning into an argument.

Now, my wife and I have lived here only a bit over 5 years and we were outside visitors for 4-5 years before that (2-3 times a year for a few days at a time).

One of the comments I read state “You can always get out by the pit”, referring to the Reiter Pit. Alas, that is on Reiter Road.

For your “outsiders”, Reiter Road is on the North Fork of the Skykomish River. The mudslide was on the South Fork and would not be accessible via Reiter Road.

Just and FYI and a short explanation of how the roads run around here.