A Final Fling... by Victoria Graham
Over the past few days here at the Weather Centre we have been informing you about some pretty turbulent weather across the pond in America. Storms have caused flooding in the northeast and more recently snowstorms have been sweeping across south-western states, more specifically over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Today I will be documenting yet more snow but this time in the East…
After a disappointing ski season things recently have perked up. In northern Idaho the ski area of Silver Mountain was actually considering reopening after closing for the season after a significant amount of snow fell across the region close to Kellogg. Stevens Pass between Seattle and Spokane was considering the same action with nearly 3 feet of snow since last weekend, and 20 inches of that in just 24hrs. Some resorts in the area had actually been closed since January 17th due to the unpredictably weird winter weather of 2004 – 2005, but ski operators are finally reporting the highest snow depths of the season so far…better late than never I guess.
The reports from the US haven’t just been of snow….wind, rain and lightning has battered Washington State making for difficult travelling resulting in power failures on Camano Island where around 3,000 people were briefly in the dark in the Lake Stevens area. Hail and lightening were also reported in the west of Washington where events were recorded by a television network camera showing a lightning strike hitting the tip of the Space Needle in Seattle.
The continuation of the winter weather in America seems a million miles away for us here in Britain…in Washington the State Transportation Department has extended the deadline for removing studied tyres due to the snow, in Britain we are set for temperatures as high as 18C (64F) in parts of the south this weekend…here, at least, spring has sprung.
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