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Health & Fitness

Snowmance? Not even a first date

Most of us are waiting for a real snowmance, but why is it so hard to even get a date in Western Washington?

Most of us are waiting for a real snowmance, but why is it so hard to even get a date in Western Washington?  I have three words for you.  They are location, location and location.

Stand in Kansas, or even Texas for that matter and look north.  If you could see as far as the North Pole there would be nothing between you and Santa but a few short trees, and lots of flat land.  And----all the cold air that develops during the dark, dark days of winter at the North Pole can sweep right down to where you’re standing with nothing to stop it.  And---that frigid Arctic Air doesn’t warm up much as it comes south, having no warm water to pass over.

Now----take the elevator up to the top of the Space Needle.  Climb out on the railing and up to the top of the Christmas tree.   Now look towards Santa’s home at the North Pole.  All you will see is mountains, unless you look far to the northwest.  The Washington Cascades continue northwest into Canada and Alaska-----all the way to the Arctic.  If you stood on a pair of stilts on the Christmas tree you might even see, on the other side of those mountains, the Rocky Mountains.

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So---the only path for the cold Arctic air to reach us in Western Washington is either over two mountain ranges or over the (relatively) warm Pacific Ocean.

And----it takes very special circumstances to get the Arctic air over the mountains.  There has to be a big high pressures system in British Columbia to our northeast.  There also has to be low pressure over us on the west side of the mountains (the deeper the better).  This combination can force the Arctic over the two mountain ranges and into our area.  The Fraser River Valley cuts through those mountains and also provides a way for the Arctic air to come into Western Washington.  That is why Bellingham has the best chance of getting Arctic air under those circumstances.

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Often this combination of low and high pressure only results in frigid dry air and no snowmance.  Only when the low pressure on our side of the mountains lifts moisture over the cold air flowing south does snow happen. 

The biggest (of all time) snow storms happen when a tasty young low pressure system loaded with moisture comes across the Pacific from the west at the same time the Arctic air is forced over the mountains (think 1949-1950----sorry anyone younger than 70).

If the Arctic air is cold enough (not very often in the winter) it can travel all the way from the Arctic, down over the Pacific Ocean and into Western Washington and still be cold enough to snow.  However this is not much of a snowmance as we get mostly in snow showers on a southwest wind.

You shouldn’t be disappointed that the two mountain ranges block most of the Arctic air.  If they were not there you wouldn’t be here either.  Without the mountains to block the Arctic air most every storm that hit us in the winter would result in large snowfalls that would quickly turn into giant slush messes (as the wind turns from easterly to westerly as the storms pass over us).

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