Mamma Mia! That's a Nice Front!

Some nights are better than other for weather lovers, and tonight was a good one, with the strongest front of the fall moving through the region.

The new Langley Hill radar made it very clear that the approaching front was worth of some respect, with an extensive area of moderate and heavy rain. In the old days, we really would not have known this.

And we could savor the front as it made landfall and moved across the western lowlands.

Precipitation totals over the central and southern Sound were quite respectable, as shown the Seattle Rainwatch: .25-1 inch in many locations. Mayor McGinn introduced Rainwatch this week and it sent out warnings before the event.

Seattle Rainwatch 24-h totals ending around 9 PM Wed.

And the winds.... on the coast and over the eastern Strait, the winds gusted to 40-55 mph, while here in the lowlands, winds hit 30-35 mph, particularly over the water.   Here is a plot of the wind gusts at Destruction Is, off the central WA coast---gust to 49 knots....56 mph.  More than many folks saw for "Hurricane" Irene in NY and New England..

The strong, turbulent winds picked up the prodigiously falling leaves to create quite a spectacular scene in my neighborhood.  Driving rain, gusting, roaring winds, a torrent of leaves--folks, it doesn't get better than this.   And to frost the cake, during the next few hours light snow will fall in the mountains above roughly 3000 ft.

Northwest storm season has begun.

Finally, here is a marvelous video of today's show, starting with dense fog this morning that surges in and out, then clearing skies, followed by lowering cloud decks from the approaching front, and then heavy rain. Watch the speed of the clouds...the atmosphere goes into warp drive later in the day:

http://www.atmos.washington.edu/images/webcam0/movies/20111102.mov


If you are a Seattle resident and would like to participate in a poll on the Seattle School Board race, click here: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=4eb22007011eb0e4496235ab

Thursday Update: Snow in the Passes

No skiing....yet.