In other words, we might get below freezing on Sunday, and maybe even a snow flurry.
Somehow I’m not impressed. This storm doesn’t even have its own graphic. How can I dread the Frosty Breath of December Doom unless the oncoming storm has its own theme music and splash screen?
Doomed, you are DOOMED!
Especially since they’ve had Jim Forman (the “Flood Stud”) handling the lead story. A guarantee of Armageddon if ever there was one.
Yeah, I’ve been hearing a lot about this too. Away up north here (I’m not actually in Seattle at the moment; my “Location” is about 90 miles off - sorry, Leaffan :p) we’re expecting possible blizzard conditions combined with lengthy power outages. Well, that’s the worst-case scenario anyway. Hopefully we’ll just get a nice bit of snow and be able to keep our precious, precious electricity, but we’ve got a wood-burning stove and a generator handy (power outages being a fairly regular occurrence here in the darker parts of the year), so we should be ready no matter what that spiteful old bitch Mother Nature decides to throw at us. 
I live in the mountains above Santa Cruz and even this far south we might get some snow above 2000’ feet. We get a little bit every few years and a real accumulation about once every decade and it’s always so beautiful and fun to go out and play around in it. I hope that you all don’t get hammered but I really want some of your snow.
What sort of area do the bigger storms cover? Could one envelop the entire UK, for instance? Are they entirely dependent on geographical location for their severity, or is it just pure luck that one of the big ones has never hit the UK?
Based on the satellite photo, the storm headed for Washington may just cover the entire UK. The swath of clouds that is visible covers all of Oregon and over half of Washington with room to spare for Northern California and a huge chunk of the Pacific offshore.
Our weather here alternates between warm-and-wet winds from the south Pacific, and cold-and-wet from the Gulf of Alaska, depending on the season. I suspect that the UK has a similar cylical warm-wet/cold-wet system, but without land northwest of you, your cold-wet isn’t as cold and snowy as ours is.
ivan astikov, keep in mind that this is a vague memory from school, and I spent about 15 seconds searching for it and another 10 seconds skimming the article, but IIRC, the Gulf Stream has a big affect on the weather in the UK. Gulf Stream - Wikipedia I’m sure there’s a meteorologist or environmental scientist around here somewhere, right?
We just moved to Seattle, and I thought about starting a thread about this. Oh dear. I spent the last 8 years in Rochester, NY and grew up in the Midwest and Southeast. This is wonderful. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and a jacket today. A woman walked into the coffee shop where I’m working wearing a thick winter coat, with hood up, a hat, a scarf, and gloves. My husband’s boss told people they could head home early. It’s not under 40. I feel like some freakish Abominable Snow Monster.
Now, I’m sure in the mountains it’ll be dangerous, but in the middle of the city? The only reason it’s dangerous is that people don’t know how to drive on hills dusted with snow when they’re fine with constant rain.
The property manager of the place we’re renting is British, and he emailed us about the horrible weather this weekend, reminding us to please keep the heat on so the pipes don’t freeze. …I think I’ve got it covered. 
I am going to get some bottled water, though, just in case everyone in the city loses their minds because it’s gonna get below 30 degrees!!!1!!1!!eleventy!
I’ve lived here in the Northwest for almost 35 years, and I didn’t even wear a coat today. It’s in the back seat of my car, where it’s been for a week. Instead I have on a white t-shirt under a short-sleeve turquoise shirt.
There is some cause for concern in this area, when it comes to snow. Once in a blue moon it does dump down a foot of snow or more, and when it does, there aren’t enough snowplows to go around. Also, most of the far-flung power lines are above ground, not buried, so outages do happen often. Some people have generators and/or natural gas, but hardly anybody has tire chains. They just aren’t necessary 99.7% of the time (literally: maybe 10 days out of every 10 years).
As far as snow in the city of Seattle, remember that Seattle has a lot of hills; snow accumulates on hills first.
Reminds of me of WINTER BLAST 2000!(actual title used by the news) when I was in norfolk… Yes, WINTER BLAST 2000! came by, and dropped 2 inches of snow on norfolk virginia, and shut the entire city down for 3 days. I think i recall hearing there was something like 3-400 accidents in the metro area that morning.
Sheesh.
After one winter in Idaho, I find the idea of WINTER BLAST 2000! unbelievably giggle-provoking. If we shut down for snow, nothing here would get done for about six months of the year. Oh and as far as snow goes? Bring it on. I’m tired of frustrated skiers being irritated with me because it hasn’t snowed. Besides, I like snow.
I got my tires installed this morning, just in time. We’re supposed to get our first big storm tonight. Woohoo!
[hijack] Hey, where did you end up settling? If there was an update to your “which neighborhood?” thread I missed it. 
[/hijack]
I’ve lived here for 12 years now, and I got out my “winter” jacket today, because of TEH STORM forecast, but it’s not really cold enough for it. With the wind, I’d rather have my summer jacket because it has a hood!
[Morons Who Write in to My Local Newspaper All the Time]Ha ha, so much for “global warming”, right Al Gore?[/MWWitMLNAtT]
We were without power for 8 days during the Great Channukah Windstorm of 2006. I’d appreciate it if the wind doesn’t knock over every powerline in 200 miles.
People in the Seattle area are incredible pussies about snow. Aaah! There’s a half-inch of snow! Aaah! Aaah! To be fair, the biggest problem with snow here is that when it snows it’s never more than a degree or two above or below freezing. And so you get snow mixed with rain, which freezes into ice, then melts into slush which blocks the storm drains, then freezes, and so on. But people here just pee their pants at the notion of snow. It’s hysterical.
Bleh. It’s -10 now, and headed to -32 tomorrow. 
It wouldn’t be that bad, but it only managed to start snowing and stay below 0 a couple of weeks ago, so it’s been feeling abnormally brisk.
Time to finally bust out the extension cord for the block heater, I guess.
I’m in the Redmond/Sammamish area, and they’ve already canceled the winter storm warning. Yay, more effin’ rain- and cold enough that it’s miserable, but not so cold that we get snow.
We’re supposed to get snow over the weekend- something like a 70% chance on both days- but I’ll believe that when I see it. So far, this winter sucks.
Here’s the 10-day forecast for the northwestern corner of Washington.
I’m going to have to get some firelogs when I’m in Bellingham tomorrow.
B-R-R-R-R!! That’s cold! I’ve only been in stuff like that a few times in my life and that was a few times too many for me. We’re supposed to have a relatively mild weekend here near St. Louis, but it might get ugly starting Sunday night. The last forecast I heard was talking about 24 hours (possibly up to 48 hours) of freezing rain, which could be a freaking disaster. With any luck, it will turn into mostly sleet or anything but freezing rain. That stuff really is like the icy fingers of wintry death, by golly! In the last big ice storm, I lost my electric for five days (and I wasn’t the last to get power back).
Eeee, someone noticed me! blush No, I didn’t update it–with the hassle of the move, I didn’t go back and dig it up, and figured no one would really care.
We’re renting a place in West Seattle now, near Alaska Junction. I love West Seattle! It’s like a small town within the city. Love it love it love it! So many young families and dogs. Definitely my kinda place. I feel settled.
Oh, about the weather: on my way home from the coffee shop, my fingers almost froze off with the cold rain and the wind. I think it was karma for my scoffing at getting bundled up.
OK, I’m cold now.
It’s about 23º and there area couple of inches of snow outside. The propane furnace is on, the space heater is on, and I’ve started a fire. But it’s going to take a little while to warm things up.