It’s Snowing! Storm Stories

I've got a mixture of snow/sleet falling (lightly) at my home this morning and the ground is white.  I won't put in a snow picture because we all know what it looks like.  Plus, I like this one better from a beach on Kauai…it makes me feel warmer.  You old timers may remember the view from the movie South Pacific. 

The snow was quite a surprise since this is one of those times that I haven't been paying close attention.  I had a close eye on Sunday (non-event), and told several people last night that today should just be partly cloudy as I verbally shot from the hip…oops.  There isn't much falling, but there are definitely fluffy snowflakes floating down nicely.  Must be the westerly flow developing up above the weakening offshore-flowing low level cold airmass still flowing through the Gorge.  Speaking of that…after 9 days of wind gusts over 50mph, TODAY should be the day with gusts less than 40 mph (or maybe less than 30 later???) through the west end of the Gorge. 

Now, for the storm stories.  I heard two good (or bad) ones last night.  One is from an unnamed person building a house near Women's Forum Viewpoint near Corbett.  The house was almost finished, including the beautiful new hardwood floors.  Apparently a door wasn't set right or something, and the east wind gusts 70-80 mph blew it open during the snowstorm in December.  That allowed the air pressure to blow out other doors and maybe a window, filling the house with snow.  Then pipes burst as the interior dropped into the 20s.  So there were 4 ft. drifts INSIDE the house, the garage door was bent out from the air pressure, and a beautiful frozen waterfall down the main stairs (the new wood stairs). And dozens of gallons of water in the duct system once it melted. That wouldn't be fun.  All this on a house that had almost been finished.  The other story was a renter who had lots of leaking and mold coming out of the ceiling after the melt had begun…turns out there was several feet of snow that had drifted in through the roof vents in the attic!  Then it melted.  So remember to check your attics if you live in an east wind spot and we have that 15-20 degree snowfall that can make it through vents and gaps…Mark Nelsen