Coldest La Niña In Over 50 Years Has Pacific Northwest Preparing For A Severe Winter

You are looking out my bedroom window from my house in Mount Vernon, Washington, at the deepest snow I remember seeing in the flatlands of the Skagit Valley, in all my years of living in Washington.

I was stuck on my hill for almost a week. At night it turned into a Winter Wonderland with people sledding down the hill under the street lights.

To get groceries I cross-country skied to the nearest grocery store, at the time, Thrifty Foods, a couple miles away.

I learned this morning that the conditions are in place to send record breaking storms to the Pacific Northwest this winter. A La Niña has formed near the equator with the coldest temperatures in more than 50 years.

Last winter the Northwest had a very mild winter. This winter is forecast to be the opposite. Western Washington counties are amping up their emergency preparedness with a "Take Winter by Storm" campaign which starts up today.