Category: Weather

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Wednesday/ snow on the ground 🌨️

It started snowing at around 8 am this morning here in Munich, but it could not have been more than an inch an or so, from what I could tell.
I used the Line 19 streetcar again to get Hauptbahnhof (the main train station), and from there, ran out to Odeonsplatz and a comic book store on Fraunhoferstrasse.

The view from my hotel room (using my phone’s 5x zoom to zoom in on the Deutsche Bahn train maintenance station) at 8 this morning.
Here comes the Line 18 streetcar, at Am Lok-schuppen station.
At Sendlinger Tor station, I stepped off the streetcar and went underground to the U-bahn.
(The sidewalk surfaces were treacherous with the snow and ice, and there were no pedestrian crossings to speak of. Then I realized that is the other use of any U-bahn station: it’s an underpassage for pedestrians to get from one side of an intersection to the other).
Here is Odeonsplatz, named for the former concert hall, the Odeon, on its northwestern side. The church is the Theatine Church of St. Cajetan and Adelaide (German: Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan und Adelheid)— a Roman Catholic church. It was consecrated 11 July, 1675.
Taking a closer look at the heraldic elements in the center (the lions and the white-and-blue checkered pattern is taken from the coat of arms of Bavaria).
Here is the nearby Hofgarten (Eng. ‘Courtyard garden’), established in 1613.
Back inside the Sendlinger Tor U-bahn station. I love the giant white saucer-shaped light fixtures.
This is a comic book store near Fraunhoferstrasse station. I bought used three comic books for all of Є8.40. More books to weigh down my luggage but hey, I was still 10+ pounds under the weight limit with both my suitcases when I checked them in at Cape Town.
By the time I hopped off the Line 18 streetcar close to my hotel, the snow had started to melt.
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Tuesday/ a cold day in Munich 🥶

I put on full kit and kaboodle this morning, before venturing out in the frigid weather. I limited my excursions outside to Hauptbahnhof and Marienplatz.
(The day started at -7 °C and the high briefly reached 0°C.)

The Line 19 street car stops almost in front of my hotel, at Am Lok-schuppen station.
I used it to run out the Hauptbahnhof (main station), and to Marienplatz. There is a ticket machine on the street car– very convenient, and only €11,10 for a Zone 3 day ticket.
There is not much of the Hauptbahnhof buildings visible from the street, because of a major construction-refurbishment project that is underway.
Marienplatz and its ‘new’ town hall. New is a relative term here. Marienplatz has been the city’s main square since 1158. I took this picture from inside the Hugendubel bookstore on the square.
Taking a closer look at the clock tower of the town hall.
Inside the U-bahn station by Marienplatz. This track serves the trains running on the U3 and U6 lines.
Here are the platforms at the Münchner Freiheit U-bahn station.
Now I’m back at Marienplatz, and the sunlight that had added a few degrees to the chilly temperatures is fading fast. So it is getting really cold again.
The iconic town towers of the Frauenkirche nearby Marienplatz. This church was constructed from 1468–1488.
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Sunset here is at 4.48 pm. I have just stepped off the street car at Am Lok-schuppen station for the 3 minute walk to my hotel.
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Friday/ rainy and dark ☔

Happy Friday the Thirteenth.
It was rainy and dark all day outside (but not quite as dark as in the forest from The Nutcracker in the picture below).

From the Seattle Times:
A ballerina from Pacific Northwest Ballet performs “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” on Wednesday evening at McCaw Hall in Seattle. [Photo by Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times]
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Thursday/ a foggy week 🌫

It has been foggy at night and into the early morning— and cold outside— the whole week, with a high of only 42°F (5°C) yesterday.
It is clearer outside tonight, and there will be rain tomorrow.

Posted on Tuesday night 10:34 PM by NWS Seattle @NWSSeattle on X:
One more night of widespread fog, as seen from the Space Needle Panocam.
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Tuesday/ a lot of gray 🌥

The rainy weather has stopped, and the forecast for the next week or so can be described as ‘morning fog, and partly sunny the rest of the day’.
The lows will be mid- to high 30s (3 °C) and the highs 46°F (8 °C) or so.

Looking south along 19th Avenue East by Stevens Elementary School, just as the light was fading today.
(Stevens Elementary School was on a list of schools to be closed, but Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones announced just yesterday that he and the school board will no longer pursue school closures and consolidations to solve the Seattle school district’s multi-million dollar budget shortfall.)
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Thursday/ colder ❄

The amigos played pickleball inside at the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City today.
There was sun outside, but the high was only 55°F (13°C).

Mr Woodpecker (a Northern flicker, Colaptes auratus) looking for ants in the cracks of the sidewalk in front of my house. I wonder if it decided to stay put for winter, or if it will soon fly somewhere south where it will be warmer.
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Thursday/ gold 🍂

It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle (63° F / 17°C), with a blue sky and sun this afternoon.

This time of year there is gold in the leaves of the trees that line Martin Luther King Boulevard in Seattle’s Central District.
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Wednesday/ landfall 🌀

Landfall was to the south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, sparing those areas a large storm surge out of Tampa Bay.
That is not to say there is not a lot of water there. Some areas around St. Petersburg received more than 16″ of rain in the last 24 hours. 😱

Tweeted by National Hurricane Center @NHC_Atlantic on X: 830pm EDT Oct 9th:
Doppler radar data indicates that the eye of #Hurricane #Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County on the west coast of Florida.
Doppler radar image tweeted by National Hurricane Center @NHC_Atlantic on X
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Tuesday/ on hurricane Milton watch 🌀

Tensions are running high in Florida. Emergencies have been declared, with evacuation orders, in dozens of Florida counties.

There are reports of clogged highways and interstates, and many gas stations running out of gas, as  drivers make their way out of the storm’s path.

Jason Samenow of the Washington Post explains below why it matters exactly where near Tampa, the hurricane makes landfall (projected to be very late on Wednesday night, or early Thursday morning).

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Monday/ here comes Milton 🌀

Milton was a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico late Monday Eastern time.
Right now the models predict that it will make landfall near Saint Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday night.

From the New York Times:
Milton is the 13th named storm to form in the Atlantic in 2024. In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 17 to 25 named storms this year, an above-normal amount. This season follows an overly active year, with 20 named storms — including an early storm later given the official name of “Unnamed.” It was the eighth year in a row to surpass the average of 14 named storms. Only one hurricane, Idalia, made landfall in the United States. Typically, the El Niño pattern that was in force last season would have suppressed hurricanes and reduced the number of storms in a season. But in 2023, the warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic blunted El Niño’s usual effect of thwarting storms.
[Map by the New York Times]
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Thursday/ Helene is here 🌀

Hurricane Helene is one of the biggest storms on record to strike the Gulf Coast. A few hours before making landfall, Helene had winds of at least tropical storm force, a sustained 39 mph or greater, across some 420 miles.

According to an analysis by Colorado State University hurricane scientist Phil Klotzbach, Helene is larger than all but two gulf storms since 1988: Opal, a Category 3 storm that made landfall on the Florida Panhandle in October 1995, and Irma, a Category 4 storm that struck South Florida in September 2017.

When a storm is so large, it means more people are exposed to its hazards, which extend hundreds of miles away from the point of landfall.
– From reporting by Scott Dance, Simon Ducroquet and John Muyskens in The Washington Post

Hurricane Helene made landfall tonight into Florida’s Big Bend region as a catastrophic Category 4 storm. There may be winds with speeds over 130 mph, and more than 10 inches of rain in some places.
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Wednesday/ it’s still very hot in Phoenix🔥

We’re going to warm up to 88°F (31°C) tomorrow here in Seattle: warm for late summer.

Our summer temperatures are nothing compared to a place such as Phoenix, Arizona, of course.
At 11 a.m. local time this morning, temperatures in Phoenix hit 100° F (38°C) for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993.

Posted by the National Weather Service for Phoenix on X @NWSPhoenix.
Today’s high in Phoenix was 108°F (42°C). Night-time temperatures do not bring much relief. The low last night was 88°F (31°C).
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Tuesday/ wave clouds 🌊

WHIDBEY ISLAND STATION, Wash. — Residents of and near Whidbey Island witnessed a weather phenomenon on Tuesday as “wave clouds” lined the horizon.

Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds or fluctus clouds, as the formations are named, are very rare over Washington, according to KING 5 Chief Meteorologist Mike Everett.
The clouds look like literal waves in the sky, a series of rounded crests that are worthy of a double-take.
Often referred to as “wave clouds,” the clouds signal a difference in wind speed and density between two layers.
– Reported by Olivia Sullivan for king5.com

“Wave” clouds, or Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, seen from Whidbey Island toward Possession Point on Sept. 3.
[Photo courtesy of Cathy O’Keefe, posted on king5.com]
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Friday/ rain ☔

Happy Friday.
There was steady rain here in the city today (about 0.5″), and there will be more this weekend.
It was all of 58°F (14°C) as I headed out for a quick walk after dinner.

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Tuesday/ fall-ish weather 🌦

A little bit of rain, a little sun, clouds— that seems to be the weather pattern for the week. A high of 71 °F (22 °C) today.

It’s the last hurrah for my deck furniture before I put it away in the garage and the basement.

These gorgeous dahlias were a gift, fresh out of the garden of my friend Bill.
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Saturday/ thunder and lightning 🌩

A large thunderstorm with rain and lightning is passing over the Seattle metro area tonight.

Here is a satellite image of the clouds over Washington State at 9.46 pm PDT just now, augmented with colors by software that tracks where the clouds have been illuminated by lightning strikes.
NOAA’s GOES-18 (launched Mar 1, 2022) is the third satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series, the Western Hemisphere’s most sophisticated weather-observing and environmental-monitoring system.
The GOES-R Series provides advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and monitoring of space weather.
[Picture from noaa.gov]
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Thursday/ hazy skies 😟

Here is tonight’s sunset, seen from Capitol Hill’s 14th Avenue at Thomas Street.
That’s a layer of smoke out there, from the wildfires east of the Cascades, and also from those burning in Oregon and California.

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Monday/ a little bit of rain ☔

This is the driest day on the calendar for our region*— but there was a little bit of steady rain around the city this morning.

*When looking at daily averages for 79 years of records at the Seattle-Tacoma airport weather station.

The tennis courts/ pickleball courts at Mount Baker Park this morning.
And hey! look at the neon-powder blue paint lines that the city put on for pickleball.
[Thanks for Steve K. for the photo]