Hilton

We didn't get any snow yesterday due to the rain shadow from the olympics, while areas just north of Seattle got close to a foot. Snow started here at about 5am and we've had 3inches do far. Lots more to come based on the radar, which is bad as the buses aren't running near here and I need to get to the airport...

Temperatures in Seattle haven't got above freezing since Saturday (with windchills down to about -10C) and the snow we had on Saturday night is still around and making everything very pretty. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer but with the prospect of potentially lots of snow. Anywhere between about 2 and 10 inches is forecast for the region, but how much of that comes off and exactly where gets it depends on the impacts of the mountains with the rain shadow and potential convergence zone. Will post updates tomorrow with how much we get (hopefully not so much that it stops me from flying home for Christmas on Thursday...)

It's been snowing for 5 hours now. We've had about an inch on cars and things, the roads are covered and slippery but not too bad as yet. Down to 32F

Moderate snow is now settling nicely, and from wandering around outside, is very cold and very pretty!

Light snow now falling in Seattle, temperature is down in 34 which is likely higher than it will get to again for the next week. Lovely http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif

Just had about five minutes of snow that's left everything very icy. Slightly unexpected as the temperature was 44F just before, but fell down to 37 in about 2 minutes as the wind moved round to the north http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12/gr...nw_weather.html (click for a lot on the ATG roof).

Pressure in Seattle has dropped by roughly 45hPa in the last 24 hours. Wet, windy and chilly so far, hopefully more to come...

It's finally starting to look like some wintry weather is on the way for Seattle come the end of the week http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif (And slightly unrelated, it's been dry and clear here for a while, and we had some wonderful lenticular clouds over Mount Rainier on Friday http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html )

Weather radio from New Orleans: http://www.nola.com/weather/radio/?/weathe...ent.ssf/weather

Where can you get the Vortex message from? Thanks :o

Here are my pictures from West of McAlester, OK, yesterday: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7691...mp;id=284201038

We spent the day in Oklahoma due to not wanting to go to far as we're packing up to move back home on Monday. Left Norman at 2.15 and headed down towards Ada. Saw the first signs of development there at about 4, then moved ahead of the line and waited in Allen as we watched two cells explode as they passed overhead. Followed them along OK-1 and came across a tornado about 15 miles west of McAlester. It was on the ground for about 15 minutes before decaying in the region of McAlester. Very strange event, no wall cloud, no obvious rotation, no structure to the cell (it was still just a mound of cumulus), so it was a pleasent surprise! Tried to follow the cells on to the east but gave up as the roads got trickier. All in all a good chase! Will try and post some photos in the reports thread later.

Upgraded to a moderate risk for NE TX / SE OK with an enhanced tornado threat. Will be leaving Norman for somewhere in an Ardmore-Durant-Sherman-Gainsville area by 12.

Leaving Norman for Childress in the next 30 mins or so (hopefully via some breakfast!).

My collection of photos from yesterday (still REALLY sleepy!). http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7621...mp;id=284201038

Long day on only 3 hours sleep! Will post some pictures tomorrow but we were in and around the storms in Fredonia, saw glimpses of a funnel cloud/big hail but had to move sharpish as it came overhead and the sirens were going. Tried to follow it north but night/rain got the better of us sadly. We did get some good lightning shots of the system though. Sadly having gotten home and checked the radar we've seen the supercells that formed outside our window in Norman, such is life!

You should all be pleased to know we have a test with Howie Bluestein on Thursday morning, and traditionally that marks the start of a few days of good storms (eg. Greensburg last year), so good signs all round! Only 2 and a bit weeks left over here for us so we'd better get something good soon!

Norman forecast office have just posted this: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/briefing/ounbrief.php Sounds promising!

Bit of a let down in the end yesterday. We got in a good position for the storms moving though Albeline and along I-20, but from our location we couldn't find roads that could get us close enough safely (the visibility was zero in the proximity of the tornadoes when we were close). We then followed the cell that developed SE of that near Lipan but again the roads weren't great/were flooded. Saw lots of trees and powerlines down 5 miles west of Lipan and some roofs off but the rain meant we could only see about 5m so had to give up on it. Today's plan is to head a bit north of OKC at 3.30 and wait around there. Sadly don't have time for a trip to Kansas, but the two RUC runs look promising for precip through N OK and the helicity is promising as well. Not overly optimistic, but it's worth a shot. Two pics from yesterday. This was about half a mile a head of the gust front and the bulk of the storm (we could see dust blowing along the field and overtaking cars on the road so we moved shortly after this!) This was just outside of Hawley (sp?). Based on the warnings/radar/report the tornado was somewhere in the mass of rain along the front of the storm but we didn't really fancy driving in there. The greenish sky on the left was amazing, as it got close the entire sky was beautifully turquoise - never seen anything like it before.

We're heading down to Wichita Falls in about an hour and will head west from there once its more obvious where the bulge will end up being (2 model runs in a row saying the same thing would be useful!).

Ended up not having to leave Norman to see the storm in the end, very civilized! The first few pictures were just before it had warnings on it (it had spent an hour sending up tower after tower with each one breaking through a bit more than the last), and then the slightly blurry lightning shot was from our balcony as it passed just south of Norman.

We will be heading somewhere NW of OKC at 3pm today (busy with classes before that). Will try and report back later with a more definite spot.

I'm heading south from Norman in a bit. Not hoping to see that much, but the cloud is clearing nicely here so should have a chance to see some good development this afternoon. (Have loads of work to try and get out of the way so I can play next week, so any trip today will be nice and local).

My (not very good) photos from Breckenridge yesterday. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7402...mp;id=284201038

Fun day! We got to Breckenridge at about 4.30 and sat just south of the town with a good view to the west and listened to the warnings. Had to move a bit south as it came a bit closer than expected. Had a good view of the tornado as it was approaching the town, though it was pretty much totally covered in rain (could really see that rotating though). Tried to get back into town but the road was blocked by an overturned lorry. Then followed the storm all the way back to Gainsville, could see odd bits of rotation at times but it had lost a lot of the structure by then. I'll post a couple of pictures in the morning (need sleep now ready for a possible early start!).