Showing posts with label Winter Storms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter Storms. Show all posts

Monday, October 4, 2010

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.