We set a new record for the amount of rain in November — and we might break the record for the most rain in any month (set in like 1890). Then Sunday, it started snowing. Right now, it’s 10.8 degrees and there’s still snow on the ground here. This is a "must" write about.
Sunday
Sunday morning’s snow started early – before I tumbled out of bed. We knew it was coming, the forecasters were spot on. Temps hung in right at 32. Big, wet flakes that accumulated pretty fast. Mid-afternoon, there was a temporary — and short-lived — switch to rain.
My back was sore and I wanted to get in the hot tub. So Mike pulled an umbrella out of the basement (an umbrella that I didn’t know we had!) and I proceeded to bask in hot water with a protected head. You can check it out at Flickr.
Mike swept off the driveway, the deck and the top of the hot tub … and then a little while later … more snow! Holy cow! We figured that by this time we had about 6 inches (counting the stuff that melted with the rain). I think we were most shocked to discover that late in the evening someone from the city or county had bladed our street … only one lane, but still. That was great.
Monday
I cancelled my lunch meeting, and Mike decided to work from home. Good thing. It didn’t get warm enough to melt the snow … and right in the middle of rush hour … more snow. It totally frilled rush hour. Our friend Susan left Capitol Hill about 6 pm – it took her an hour to go 40 blocks. She phoned … I checked traffic maps and navigated from afar. "Don’t get on SR520! It’s black to I-5 … and I-5’s black almost to the county line!’ (Being "black" means that traffic is "heavy" according to the DOT road sensors. What it really means is stop-and-go traffic.)
To make a long story short, she got home almost 4 hours after she left work. It’s normally a 35-40 minute commute at that time of day.
Mike’s boss left Microsoft at 10 pm, thinking he’d avoid the worst of the traffic. He got home at 3 am. He lives two exits north of us off I-5. At 10 pm, that commute is normally about 30 minutes.
In the middle of helping Susan figure out how to get home, I decided to warn my Tuesday night class that we’d probably not be meeting together. And even though Seattle public schools were officially closed by 11pm, the UW website said not word-one about snow.
Tuesday
We woke to the sound of tires crunching on ice … and advisories to avoid driving. Mike had an early morning e-mail from Microsoft saying campus was closed; the e-mail was resent a couple hours later with the same message contents but a different subject line!
Both of us worked from home again. It’s a good thing that my primary machine is the laptop, since our two desktops share the same monitor!
Now the weather watchers are calling for MORE snow Wednesday-Thursday — another 2-6 inches. I sure hope some of this precip is getting recorded at SeaTac towards the "rain" record!
I took some pictures this afternoon; will try to get them up on Flickr soon.
