KOMO Weather Blog

Stormy week in fast-forward review

It's been an amazing week, which kicked off with thunderstorms and large hail last Friday, and then four wind storms Sunday night through Thursday.

As you might imagine, the skies were dancing quite a bit with all the wind and rain, so I compiled some of the best time lapse videos of the week. Maybe find your iPod and crank up some tunes in your ear buds as you watch the days go by :)

Per usual, these are from Dr. Dale Ireland in Silverdale and the UW Atmospheric Sciences Building.

November 12: (Silverdale:)

Rain, Rain Go Away? How About "No No November"

Reader Carol Smith, who like most of us are trying to adjust to the onslaught of the rainy season, penned this nice little poem about the November weather of late:

Surprise, surprise, it rained on Nov. 19

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a... meteor?

Peak Gusts From Wednesday Storm

..MAXIMUM PEAK WIND GUSTS FROM AROUND WESTERN WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY EVENING AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

OFFICIAL LOW LAND AIRPORT OBSERVATION SITES.

SMITH ISLAND            62 MPH
BELLINGHAM                      61 MPH
FRIDAY HARBOR                   60 MPH
HOQUIAM                         59 MPH
WHIDBEY ISLAND NAVAL STATION    55 MPH
WEST SEATTLE (ALKI BEACH)    51 MPH
EAST SOUND                      46 MPH
OLYMPIA                         45 MPH
EVERETT /PAINE FIELD            44 MPH
QUILLAYUTE                      41 MPH
SEATTLE SANDPOINT OFFICE        41 MPH
BOEING FIELD                    38 MPH
SEA-TAC                         37 MPH
BREMERTON                       36 MPH
ARLINGTON                       36 MPH
TACOMA INDUSTRIAL AIRPORT       36 MPH
SHELTON                         32 MPH

iPhones: Great for games, not so good in wind storms

Leonid Meteors, in case you missed it

What do all those warnings mean?

When November rolls around, weather warnings come fast and furious. But there's so many different ones that have specific meaning to the National Weather Service, but might leave you at home scratching your head. Like: What's the difference between a Snow Advisory and Winter Storm Warning?

To start with the basics: a "Watch" means conditions are favorable for the highlighted event, but not certain yet. These typically get issued 12-48 hours in advance of an approaching event. Sort of like a "heads up." A "Warning" means conditions are imminent within 12 hours or are already occurring.

Let's break down some of the most common ones we see around Western Washington this time of year:

Marysville to Sequim Rain Shadow: Yoink!

Typically, it's Sequim that boasts the 300 days of sunshine (not sure how accurate that is -- I might buy 300 dry days, or maybe with a peek of sun, but not 300 Los Angeles-esque sunny days) but one thing is for sure, Sequim can boast being the driest spot in Western Washington, with just 15-18" of rain per year -- half that of Seattle.

What is the "Northwest Interior"?

We talk about it a lot during wind events: "Higher wind speeds in the Northwest Interior".

This is generally the area from roughly Everett north to the Canadian border, and west to Port Townsend, including Whidbey, Camano and San Juan islands.

Other cities would be Anacortes, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, and Burlington.

This map below shows a rough outline of the Northwest Interior: