Passenger Trains > Been in the winter through a storm with no name

It started snowing in the Seattle area last night. It kept snowing. It's still snowing.There's 3"-10" of the stuff.

I got up, went to the office and fired up the Google traffic map. I've lived here for 40 years and have never seen it quite like that.

I thought that surely, there can't be any trains today. I checked the Dixieland map . There are trains, all of them!

Off to the Sound Transit service alerts. I'm sure there must be lots of problems. Yup, thought so. The elevators on the Everett pedestrian bridge are out of service. That's it.

Now for you folks from places where they have winter, we generally don't. The grade on the street in front of my house is around 4% Grades all around Seattle are as much as 10%. There aren't a lot of snow plows. Articulated buses are fun to watch, but all of the buses are on winter routes that eliminate the steepest grades.

For Seattle, the conditions this morning are really bad, but all of the trains are running. How can that be? Oh look in trainorders. The flangers are working Donner and the passenger trains are patiently waiting for them to clear up the railroad, but they are running.

Finally I got it. This storm doesn't have a name! The news just called it a snow advisory with a chance of lowland snow. The big national media don't know we're out here, either. To the folks on Donner, it's just another winter day. When there is a Snowmageddon storm Joe, or Pete, or Amadeus in Chicago or it is really cold, the folks Back East annul trains out here, Apparently not knowing that there is an out here. Since the folks Back East apparently don't know that there is an out here, they don't know that
1. It is snowing
2. We're running trains

Don't tell them.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 13:26 by TAW.

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So true - Thomas.  You did a great job of exposing an agenda an many media producers.
Andy

Now you've done it. You exposed the west to the rest of the world, now Dick Dasturdlee will be pencilling out a stragety for cancelling trains due to weather, of any kind. lol

Great report, Tom.  I always enjoy reading your contributions to TO.com.  I guess you guys are kind of like Atlanta.  A quarter inch of the stuff locks that town up tighter than a drum.  I'm in Louisville, Ky. and I had to spend an extra day in the hospital once because it snowed in Atlanta.  Everyone went home early (to spend hours in traffic) and the Medicare office that needed to approve something didn't get the approval until the next day. 

I always tell my friends that when you drive on the stuff, drive like you have a raw egg taped to the bottom of your shoe.  Go easy on the gas and easy on the brakes.

Enjoy the winter wonderland.

John

DC offices and CNOC probably dismissed the idea that it ever snows in Seattle, so overlooked this one. 
Does Seattle still ban the use of rock salt ? 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 13:41 by joemvcnj.

Don't worry, Cantore doesn't run to Colorado when we have big snow. We know what we're doing, just like CalTrans knows how to keep I80 open minus all the crazy drivers doing 60 on snowpacked surface and wonder how they are stuck in a snowbank that will require a tow and bill for $300. Glad I'm not at my other house in WA. I have a 30 percent hill. Not even 4W with snow tires and chains will get you up that sucker. Not even Ice Road Truckers will help
 

Thanks for the report TAW and as always, your level headed reporting......... Appreciated..........

Actually, there are no official names for winter storms. It is something The Weather Channel does to hype its ratings. 

MSE Wrote:
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> Actually, there are no official names for winter
> storms. It is something The Weather Channel does
> to hype its ratings. 

Right. That's why my reference to the media.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
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> I thought that surely, there can't be any trains today. I checked the Dixieland map . There are trains, all of them!
>
That reminds me of the snowstorm in the DFW area 9 years ago. WFAA was showing a live feed from the "tower cam" with the traffic reporter warning to "avoid the area" and how "nothing is getting in or out of downtown". While she was saying this, a TRE commuter train arrived in the background and passengers started to disembark. A few seconds later a DART train pulled into view, and you could see passengers walking towards it before they moved on to the next story.

Seems I witnessed a pretty heavy snow in Seattle in '96 or '97. It was memorable because my flight landed in Seattle (a big ol' United DC10) and we waited on the taxiway for 2 or 3 hours because the tractors couldn't push the planes at the gate out. The flight crew opened the doors on the plane to ventilate all the jet exhaust because the passengers were complaining. Of course it was cold (not N Dakota cold, but chilly) and the passengers complained about that. Never had that happen before or since. It was an ugly, slushy snow, that caused trucks to stall on bridges over the UP Yard in Seatlle. Mostly gone by the evening.

Meanwhile, it’s 50 degrees F in Chicago and the Metra BNSF rush is again off to a flying start due to “mechanical issues”.

P.S. Love the thread title!

Posted from iPhone

Climate change is coming. However, it is not the type of climate change many are expecting...

A Winter Tale of Snow to Remember and Sun Long Ago
http://thegreatrecession.info/blog/winter-tale-snow-to-remember-sun-long-ago/
David Haggith, February 3, 2019

"I wrote months ago about the coming mini ice age. Recently the reality of this cooling trend became mainstream news because of a new scientific study affirming cooling of the earth's atmosphere, and even more recently, the midwest decided to remind us of what mini ice ages might feel like. ...

"As I write now, the edge of the polar vortex has made its way to the Pacific Northwest, and snow is blowing sideways across the fields from the north. The wind is howling around the house and knocked the power out so that we were running on generator. That’s not unusual for the mountain region where I live, but for the last three years winters have brought record snowfalls to parts of the Cascades.

"So, what is normal? Can the earth be cooling when there are clearly more greenhouse gases now than back in the 1700s? It is cooling because the sun is going into a mini ice age event called a solar minimum in which the sun stops emitting solar flares, which means it stops bathing the earth’s outer atmosphere in as much ejected radiation (and the heat that goes along with that).

"The last time the sun settled into one of these reduced-activity cycles was back in the late 1600s and 1700s. Benjamin Franklin was visiting France in those days, and the United States of America did not exist. That the earth was cooler in those decades of reduced solar flares is born out by numerous writings that talked about how the Thames would freeze over and other great winter-storm events. It is also recorded in trapped atmosphere in which trace particles indicate a cooler climate at that time...."

A link from from NASA:The Chill of Solar Minimum
September 27, 2018 / Dr.Tony Phillips



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 16:22 by Cumbresfan.

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MSE Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Actually, there are no official names for
> winter
> > storms. It is something The Weather Channel
> does
> > to hype its ratings. 
>
> Right. That's why my reference to the media.
>
> TAW

Don't slam the rest of them for the Weather Channel's exercise in self promotion.

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised to see #5/#6 running today with a blizzard warning across a large area, snow levels down the foothills, and I-80 closed from Colfax to the Nevada line.  The train is the only way across the Sierras today.  As I write this the two trains are about to meet right around Yuba Pass.

PHall Wrote:
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>
> Don't slam the rest of them for the Weather
> Channel's exercise in self promotion.

Maybe it's different there. Here, the rest of media are usually good for joining in the storm chant.

TAW

My family moved from Cleveland, the land of lake effect snow, to Seattle in the early 60's. I distinctly remember seeing the Seattle City busses climbing those hills in the NE district in quite heavy snow. Later in life I heard about snow chains and snow schedule routes, but for the moment the Emerald city was a wonderment. Enjoy the moment.

MSE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, there are no official names for winter
> storms. It is something The Weather Channel does
> to hype its ratings. 

Perhaps The Weather Channel will give this winter storm a name starting
with "B" and referring to male cow excrement.  After all, it is not in
the East or in Chicago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 18:48 by GenePoon.

Hooray for transportation options! I took CTA trains during the recent snowfall and extreme cold and they ran as usual. In fact, a little faster, because the dwell time was less at stations with so many people not working on the cold days.

Fantastic coverage of the unnamed Seattle Snow! More like a TAWhiteout! I am hearing Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckly, and Dan Peek sing subliminal harmony to your thread title :-)