Tag Archives: spring

Button It, Seattle Snow Wimps, It Rained in L.A.

Saturday morning's snow flurry (Photo: MvB)

Remember back in January when the L.A. Times labeled Seattle drivers “snow wimps”? Dripping with condescension, the story began: “Color Seattle clueless. The city has always marched unarmed into its infrequent battles with snow, and Wednesday’s snowstorm was no exception.”

Keep that in mind when you think we’ve got it hard with winter still on the March. Feet of snow falling in mountain passes; multiple power outages, first 13,000 then 28,000; over four and a half inches of rain this month (true, in 2011, we saw over six inches); and did you know spring officially begins at 10:14 tonight? Neither does Mother Nature. Here’s what the National Weather Service is saying:

THE WINTER STORM WATCH FOR THE CASCADES HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A WARNING FOR TONIGHT THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.  […] STRONG OROGRAPHIC FLOW BEHIND THE FRONT ON TUESDAY WILL KEEP SNOW GOING IN THE MOUNTAINS ALL DAY AND INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. ANOTHER 1 TO 2 FEET OF NEW SNOW IS EXPECTED BY EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING.

KOMO 4’s Paul Deanno gives the local view: “Rain will move in overnight with lows staying in the low 40s, and a steady rainfall is likely throughout the day tomorrow.” With relatively balmy highs in the upper 40s, it won’t be as wintry as it has been, but wind gusts may reach 30 to 40 mph. (I know, “move in”? It’s rained fourteen of the last 18 days.)

But all that is as nothing before the fury of a SoCal storm that lasts several hours. Let the L.A. Times show you a real winter storm. Downtown Los Angeles drowned under 0.59 inches of rain, and the “California Highway Patrol reported 422 traffic collisions.” (What is it with those clueless Los Angelenos? Always marching unarmed into their infrequent battles with rain….)

14,000 people lost power, but that wasn’t the worst of it. You may want to sit down for this next part:

The storm’s continuing effects will set the stage for a cold, wet Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday, with highs around 60 — 12 to 16 degrees below normal.

OH THE HUMANITY! The next time you’re tempted to grouse about the winter weather in Seattle, take a moment, and give thanks you don’t live in Southern California. You don’t know how easy you have it.

Cold Spring Blooms with New Sites: Eater, Curbed, Urbandipity, GeekWire

Brrr! The cold spring hasn’t done much for plants–our asparagus is just coming in from the fields, finally–and it hasn’t improved moods either. UW Meteorologist Cliff Mass says he’s been hearing two questions over and over:

Are springs getting worse? Is this the worst spring on record? Looking at the data one might argue that the answer to both of these is yes.

But online, things are springing up all over. Eater Seattle, part of a national network, has launched and formerly-of-Seattlest editor Allecia Vermillion writes to say:

At Eater Seattle, we’ll dig deep for original reporting; offer user-generated tips, rants and raves; and curate a daily roundup of what the rest of the restaurant and food media around town—and on the national level—are talking about. No, you won’t find recipes, reviews, or food porn herein, but Eater Seattle promises a daily dose of restaurant news fresher than a basket of foraged fiddlehead ferns.

Which is weird because I just had to ask someone what a fiddlehead was last night. A companion online property–you can tell from the design–is the real-estate and lifestyle site, Curbed Seattle.

From the ins and outs of the real estate scene, to adventures in urban planning and architecture, to local oddities, for Curbed Seattle, it all comes back to real estate, rent, and the neighborhoods we inhabit.

Curbed Seattle joins the growing Curbed Network of sites including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and DC, not to mention our National Mothership.

That one’s helmed by Federal Way native Kelly Skahan.

I found out about Urbandipity by reading Queen Anne View’s post on the Queen Anne start-up. Urbandipity’s premise is that you post about something you’d like to do (heading to Discovery Park, a wine tasting, catching a Mariners–ha ha! No, I couldn’t get through that last one) and then Seattle’s famously stand-offish population looks over your e-shoulder and decides if they want to join you. Presumably they can monetize the site with offers to go do things that cost money.

Lastly, you’ve probably heard about GeekWire (the new indie offshoot of the PSBJ’s TechFlash, starring John Cook and Todd Bishop). If you’re interested in Seattle tech and its fleece-vest lifestyle, this is what you need to read. Coming soon will be an interview with Cook, as soon as I can find the time to pester him about it.

Glimpses of Spring (Slideshow)

One of the best things about the The SunBreak are the photographic contributions we find in our Flickr pool. Now that we have a new look and layout, we’re taking our Glimpses posts to a weekly format, and will build them around themes. One week we might highlight a particular photographer, the next, the search results for “yellow.” Feel free to suggest ideas. We’re going to kick things off with these glimpses of “spring.”