Dark Weather

Hiking around Mt. Rainier near Paradise. Clouds were rolling in and snow was on its way.

Winter Weather

When I moved to Seattle, I was told it rarely snowed. Well, for the past three years it has snowed every December. Since they are even less prepared here than in Tennessee, the roads are always a mess. In any case, at least it's a nice view out our living room window.

Winter Weather

Stormy

Storm clouds over the Puget Sound.

ISO 250 | 31 mm | f/4.5 | 1/13 sec

Wisps

Neat cloud formations (cirrus clouds, I believe). When I first saw these clouds, I could see an amazingly bright crystal halo. But by the time I walked home to grab my camera, the clouds had moved past and the halo disappeared. I was very disappointed as I had never seen such a bright one before, so I had to settle for the blue and white only.

It's been a while since I posted anything, but I did some catching up. So, please check out the last few days to see some new posts.

Cold

Some days it can be hard to take a picture. Today was one of those. Even after it started to hail, I wasn't very inspired. So anyway, I went behind my apartments, froze my butt off and took this picture.

Splash

As I walked home from work a few days ago, I noticed the splash some steady streams of water were making on the pavement. I thought it would make a good picture, but it was dark, cold and wet. So today that it rained, I remembered the splash and went back and took this picture. The lighting wasn't great and it came out a bit grainy, but I still think it's a neat picture.

Fun fact: it took me 70 pictures to get this shot. I did have a few others with only one splash or two, but this was the best one. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

A Foggy Day

It was an interesting day today. Weather wise that is, because work was pretty routine. It was foggy when I went to work, when I went out to lunch and going back home in the afternoon. I've never had a day that was completely foggy.

Morning Due

It's surprising how a little sun can make a difference.

Snow After Work

I love snow. I suppose I love it because I don't really have to deal with the hassles it creates. I've always lived close to work or school and I am able to walk when it snows. Also, I've never lived in places where it snows frequently.

It's pretty rare for Seattle to get snow. Usually, it's just a long rainy winter, so a change in the monotony is welcome. It was actually supposed to snow last night but only in the northern areas of Seattle. Instead, it decided to defy the weatherman's prediction and snow in the southern areas. So when I woke up today and didn't see it all white, I was disappointed. But thankfully my disappointment was gone when I walked home as it snowed.

Today's walk home was a bit different, even somewhat weird. Normally, you can hear all the hustle and bustle of the traffic; the honking, the motors, etc. But today, a silence fell over all the traffic. There seemed to be more traffic than normal, but it was so quiet you could hear the snow fall on the ground. Near the cars you could hear the fresh snow crunching under the tires.

When I got back home, I looked like the abominable snow man because I was covered in snow. I took my camera and tripod and took a few pictures. This one picture below is from behind my apartment next to a small lake in my apartment complex.

Blackout

Maybe I shouldn't have made fun of the weather yesterday. Last night the wind speed was between 50 and 77 mph in Seattle and by the coast 90 mph winds were recorder.

The wind was pretty amazing last night and it finally caused the lights to go out a little past 1 a.m. I was surprised they didn't go out sooner since they had been flickering on and off all night long. However, when I went to bed, I wasn't expecting them to still be out in the morning.

When I woke up, I managed to check my email over the phone and find out the entire Microsoft campus was closed due to lack of electricity. Yay, I thought, no work! But then I realized that also meant no hot water, no hot food and no heat. Darn you electricity! When I own a house, Ill have a propane heater and stove.

As I heard the news, I found out that most of Seattle was without electricity and in the surrounding areas about 700,000 (including me) were also without electricity. I heard that several trees had fallen and caused major problems. One of my coworkers had a tree fall on his house and another was helping his neighbor who also had a tree fall on his house. I went out for a while to see if I could find any fallen trees in my area, but they had all been removed. I can't copy pictures form my camera to my phone, so Ill post the image later.

This type of storm is rather uncommon in this part of the country. But apparently it happens about one every ten years. The last time it happened was in 1993, so we were well overdue for one.

Let it Snow

When I woke up today, the ground was covered in a light snow. It was more ice by then since it had been several hours since it snowed the previous night. However, just as I got back from work, it started snowing again. About 10 minutes later I took this picture and there was already about 1/5 of an inch. It accumulated fairly quickly up to about 1 inch.

Fall in the Rain

As I was driving back to my apartment from the post office I quickly stopped by the Microsoft campus to take a couple of pictures. This first picture is looking down 36th Ave. into the campus. See this location on Live Maps.


This second picture is of employees playing flag football in the rain at the fields on the Microsoft Campus. See this location on Live Maps.

Yet Another Rainy Day

Just another rainy day. I wasn't feeling very good in the afternoon, so I didn't go anywhere. This tree is right outside the building I work in.

Another Rainy Day

Seattle is starting to show the weather it's famous for. Every once in a while there was a ray of sun making it through the clouds.