Yesterday's trip into Seattle to both shop and re-experience the sights and sounds of Christmas downtown, saw June and me scurrying back late-afternoon to the Edmond's ferry and on to Kingston as predicted snow started falling. And fall it did last night, plus wind, plus drifting. Now we hear that (possibly) this weather will last all the way to the New Year.
Having spent some twenty winters in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Ottawa, Quebec and Alberta, I tend a somewhat cavalier attitude to it all, forgetting that our local infrastructures plus everybody else's driving skills (certainly not mine!) put such attitudes to an unforgiving test.
This time of year I check to see who is winning the Alberta cool test: Yesterday Edmonton's -4 and -13 beat Calgary's -2 and -11, When it comes to cold I'm glad to no longer live in either area, although two of my kids, Lesley and Chris, and their families living in Lincoln NE with today's high of 5 low of -10, don't seem to mind it.
Yesterday we say a lone crab fisherman in an open skiff working off President Point and wished for a camera.
Weather is certainly the topic of the day, at least these immediate days, with Canada's arctic cold contribution roaring down the Fraser River Valley. And forecasting seems to be a mix of science, divination, chance, and hope.
Here are some sites that might be helpful as you try your skill discerning (divining?) what the future holds in store. Besides, some are just fun to cruise while you're weathered-in, or otherwise.
- Cliff Mass, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington (whose mentor was Carl Sagan) has an excellent weather blog which he seems to update all day long. Really makes the weather understandable. Reader comments from around the Northwest add to the latest weather reports.
- National Weather Service. You can set this for any specific location either by city or latitude/longitude.
- NOAA's Marine Forecast. A must for mariners.
- Some nearby Canadian sites. Victoria, Sidney, South Coast of British Columbia including Vancouver Island, Vancouver Island winds.
- Dungenness Light House Weather, Sequim.
- National Data Buoy Center. A look out into the Pacific as well as close to home at both buoys and stations.
- Winds and temperatures on the Washington State Ferry routes.
All well worth bookmarking.
And there are many more sites that you may know of. Please let me know via the "comments" invitation following this posting. With enough I can easily post an update and widen our boating community's weather resource bank.
Meanwhile, stay safe, especially on those icy docks. While the water of Puget Sound is warmer than the air right now, that's of little comfort to a soaked sailor or a guest!
Now, if you've excused this posting's headline pun, above, a Happy Winter Solstice to you all.
Photo: Kingston Village scene, by June Jackson
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