Not quite a White Christmas, but still a nice scene

Share

By Scott Sistek

Summary

It's been 17 years since Seattle has had an official White Christmas -- termed as at least 1" of snow on the ground on Christmas Day. It may not add up to be enough, but some spots around the region got a nice dusting of snow.

Story Published: Dec 25, 2007 at 9:45 AM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 26, 2007 at 9:48 AM PDT

Not quite a White Christmas, but still a nice scene
SEATTLE -- There's only a 7 percent chance of it happening each year in Seattle, and it's been 17 years since Seattle has had an official White Christmas -- termed as at least 1" of snow on the ground on Christmas Day at Sea-Tac Airport. Officially, this year wasn't any different, but some spots around here saw a little sprinkling of snow, even if it doesn't add up to be enough to count.

A cold front moved into Western Washington during Tuesday afternoon, bringing a round of moisture to the region. The atmosphere was on the borderline to being cold enough for snow, so some spots that are typically just a skosh cooler saw that precipitation begin as snow.

Accumulations were pretty light -- a dusting to maybe 1" at most in general for spots that got snow. The Hood Canal area did see a little more, but that's to be expected. The snow was tapering off Tuesday evening, but that's not the end of it.

This is not a typical widespread snow event -- the front is coming from the west and will eventually bring up enough onshore wind that we'll warm into the upper 30s by afternoon and change to rain pretty quickly.

(For a good widespread snow, we want some arctic air coming down from B.C. through the Fraser Valley, and the air up there now isn't all that cold. We just have a cool mass of air coming from the Gulf of Alaska, which typically gets us on the fringe of cold enough to snow, but not a sure bet.)

One place where a White Christmas was guaranteed is in the mountains, where another 6-12" of new snow fell on Christmas. More snow is in the forecast again for the mountains Wednesday morning, then again on Thursday and perhaps a big blast of snow over the weekend.

Back in the lowlands, a second chance of snow comes Wednesday and then another on Thursday. Some cooler air will filter in behind that front -- enough to drop the snow level to near the surface, if not at the surface. We won't have any widespread moisture by then, but there will be plenty of scattered showers roaming around that what falls then will likely be as snow -- even in Seattle. But snow showers will be brief and passing, and accumulations will be brief.

The exception is the Puget Sound Convergence Zone region between Northgate and Everett. There, snow could get going for a while, and we could see a few inches of snow in spots around that specific region if the zone sets up. It was just rain in the Zone early Wednesday morning, but temperatures were in the mid 30s, so a little more cooling and it could mix into snow. Highs will only reach the upper 30s across the area.

A third chance of lowland snow pops in on Thursday as our next system arrives. Again, this is not a big scenario -- under normal circumstances, this is just another rain maker. But there might be enough cool air remaining from Wednesday that it could start as wet snow. This is especially true in that Hood Canal snow belt area between Shelton and Quilcene along Highway 101. There, you could see 2-4" during the day. For the rest of us, just a brief, light accumulation possible (under an inch) and then it will melt and turn to rain.

Bottom line, we're just on the cusp of snow through the end of the week and into Sunday, but none of these events look like they'll be enough to cause any problems, and the best chance for accumulations over an inch are the Hood Canal area (Tuesday through Thursday), the Puget Sound Convergence Zone area Wednesday, and the eastern Cascade foothills above 500 feet.

But for something that rolls around once every 15 years or so, we'll take what we can get!

(P.S. For those that remember the big snowstorm of 1996 around Christmas -- the big snow in Seattle came on December 26th and 29th. It also snowed on the 24th, but quickly melted that day)