We were due...the snow debt is paid.

Feb 6th, 2014 approx 3 PM

Every five years or so we get a significant snow storm. The kind like we got yesterday and that will continue today. When all is said and done just about everyone in the metro area will have at least 8 inches on the ground and some will have upwards of 2 feet. The last "big one" was Christmas 2008 just a month more than five years ago. Prior to that event was the snow and ice epic event in January of 2004 just a few weeks shy of five years earlier. Pattern? Perhaps.

Yesterday I received about 5-6 inches of snow. There was only about 4.5 measurable because the first few hours of snow came in sideways and drifted several blocks away. I will officially record 5 inches since I can't be certain how much blew off and ended up in that 18 inch drift down the street. I probably had 6 inches.

As I write this, there is a break in the cloud cover and that February sun is trying to exert some dominance over this snow. The temp is in the mid twenties now but I am sorry 'El Sol'; you don't have the amps to bust threw this cold air layer today. When the next low pressure system arrives it will pull cold air in through the gorge to fortify this as an all snow event. The National Weather Service has posted another Winter Storm Warning and they expect another 2-6 inches in the city and of course varying amounts in all the assorted neighborhoods. I would expect to at least match yesterday's totals here. If that pans out, I will have close to a foot on the ground and that really is a five year event.

My personal record snows are not likely to be broken but this could end up second or third. I have been keeping snow records at this location since 2001.

Here are the four occasions in which I had at least 5 inches on the ground since 2001. Yes only four. I have had 41 snow events with at least a trace sticking to the ground in those 13 winters and only a quad with 5 or more inches accumulating. The snowiest single day I recorded was January 6th, 2004 with 10 inches coming down on a day that still stands with the coldest daytime high reading of 20.8 degrees. I was just shy of 20 inches of snow from that event that ran from December 30, 2003 until the last of the freezing rain was done on January 9th, 2004. I had a maximum snow depth of just under 12 inches (a half inch of solid ice over the top). January, 2007 had a snowy and cold spell with 3 inches falling on the 10th some flurries through the week and 4 more inches on the 16th piled on most of the snow that was still hanging around to a depth of 6 inches. The biggest snow event I have had yet however, came on a rare white Christmas here in the 'Couv'. December 2008 was a wild and white month that began on the 13th. Most of the snowfall was light but there was a blast of 7 inches on the 20th. All totaled I had the deepest snow cover of my 13 winters here in NE Vancouver with a whopping 15 inches on the ground on Christmas Day and a storm total of over 19 inches. Since then snowfall has been the more typical for the west side of the Cascades; light amounts with wet and slushy conditions for the most part. Until now.

Yesterday the temps remained in the very low twenties and teens and the snow was mountain dry. Very ineffective for snowmen or snow balls. With my temperature expected to get up towards 30 degrees this next round will likely be a little more moist.

Our friends in the upper Mid-West will post tweets about us with RAOFLMAO at our shut-down the town attitude over less than a foot of snow. But what they fail to understand is that the 'Couv' is home to some 300,000 people and has fewer snow plows than a Mid-Western town of 30,000. Spokane, Washington is the urban snow king in the State of Washington, averaging 49 inches of fluffy white precipitation each year which is about the same as Minneapolis, MN. They have more than 60 snowplows and Spokane is roughly the same population as the 'Couv'. When Spokane gets a 6 inch snow event, they can easily plow the streets in a relatively prompt fashion. Vancouver has... wait for it... 8 plows. So I don't know about our larger neighbor to the south, but I understand Portland has a similar problem. So yes my friends SIX inches will shut down this town! It takes a much larger event to cause widespread problems in the upper Mid-West but when those areas reach the point that their snow removal is ineffective; lo and behold they look just as silly as we do.

We also don't use rock salt because of Columbia River environmental concerns, so the snow piles up and hard packs on the roads. The plows can only hit the main arterial roads. Neighborhood streets will thaw naturally before a truck ever finds its way down any suburban lane.

So stop laughing at us; these "big" snow events are not common enough to justify the expense of a major snow removal staff. However, note to Vancouver City Council, having a private force of snow removal people on call could be a solid idea. There are a lot of farmers with tractors that plow private shopping centers so why can't you hire those guys to hit the streets of the 'Couv' when these snowzilla events take shape? Yeah good idea, I know ;)

Enjoy our snowy extravaganza and by all means; Soak it up my friends, soak it up.