Very wet and then very dry

As predicted the snow turned to rain last night, although I little later than I and most of the weather community had thought. A Puget Sound convergence zone formed this morning, producing a band of showers across the central Sound...but that has weakened now...leaving showers only on the windward slopes of the Cascades and Olympics. Tonight we will begin a wetter, warmer period...with rain over the lowlands and the lower slopes of the Cascades. The central Sound from Seattle northward will be partially rain shadowed...so there probably won't be any urban flooding. The precipitation over the mountains will be sufficient to cause flooding on some rivers...but I will deal with that later...I have to get ready to teach the next generation of meteorologists!

PS: Later this week a big ridge of high pressure builds over the eastern Pacific and we get a major break...dry, warmer....


Snow Removal Notes

Some of you commented about the use of salt last night by Seattle. As someone in the pro-salt-when-appropriate camp, I can't see why these used it......with temperatures rapidly warming anyway and no ice, but slush. They seems to be spending a lot of time going up and down primary roads...which in this case were melted out rapidly, when the plows where really needed on steep secondary and tertiary roads...yes even the neighborhoods. A quick run of a plow on the slush could really have helped my street...I was trapped last night again..and narrowly missed my neighbor's car.