Puget Sound Post

Autumn Strengthens

Posted by: PugetSoundPost, 3:14 PM GMT on October 16, 2012

October 31, 7:20 AM
A Wet Halloween!

The rain keeps coming this week! We are just a bit under 2" total with this current system, since it rained pretty much all day yesterday and overnight as well, with more still coming today. It looks like a wet Halloween will be our lot this year - although by evening it may be tapering down to more showery spells.

It is still warm, since this system is a warm one, with its roots down in the vicinity of Hawaii. It is currently 55, which is our morning low as well! So it is pretty comfortable outside - no wind, warm, but wet. Flood watches are up for a few rivers. Seems like an early start to that season.

Not too much festivity at our house this year. We get few trick or treaters and I will need to spend a good portion of my day with my mom. She has moved back, this week, to her assisted living apartment, but she is very fragile and everything is day by day for her.

October 26, 9:15 AM

Our fall/winter pattern has pretty firmly implanted itself over us. The pretty sudden change that began two weeks ago has remained and will remain as far as the eye can see. It rains various amounts nearly each day, overcast skies, and high temps in the 50's, lows in the 40's. This schedule is booked in for at least the next week, with a bit of warming coming in a couple of days, but really not much change expected. It is dry right now, but the clouds are lowering and rain is coming again later today.

A few days ago I spent time outside cleaning up our deck, again, and getting it more shut down for winter. I got rid of more flowers (but a lot remain and are doing quite nicely, mainly geraniums and winter pansies) put away the last of the things still hanging around, covered up the furniture (which isn't too great anyway),re-filled the bird feeders and put away my little freestanding fountain. A lot of sweeping completed it and it looks crisper and pretty nice out there right now. It is always kind of fun to have everything done like that in time for the winter blows, just as it is so nice to bring it all back out in time for summer. Love the seasonal cycles!

October 20, 7:55 AM

Heavy gray clouds this morning are tracking from south to north across the sky. It is 44 degrees currently, with a little breeze. Rain showers are predicted all weekend, and they look to be a definite threat. A colder air mass has moved in, so it may be about all we can do to break 50 for a high today - depends how much sun may break through too. The forecast for the next week is not a lot different. We seem to have taken the expected stair-step down as the season is progressing toward overall cooler temperatures, as we inch closer toward winter. The last week has given us a definite shift in the season.

There is snow in the passes for the first time this morning, and looking fondly back to our Mt. Rainier trip, I see that there is a more significant snow at Paradise this morning - pretty solidly white now, and even much lower down at Longmire, where we stayed, there is a skiff of snow on the ground as well this morning for the first time.

So far in October we now have 1.93" rain, coming in just a week's time after such a very long dry spell, and this weekend, at least, looks rather raw and drippy ahead.

October 16, 8:00 AM

The season has changed. Gone are those balmy, sunny days of Indian Summer and in its place the rains and stronger winds of autumn have arrived. Late, but not forgotten.

The change developed rather rapidly late last week and seems here to stay. Each day since last Thursday has been cloudy, dropped some rain and the temperature, and the winds have gained strength as well. So far in October now we have 1.00" of rain, all coming since really Friday, but mainly Saturday onward. Yesterday we had our first Wind Advisory of the season, but not a lot of wind materialized here at home. Some breezier gusts now and then. Rain is in the forecast for the next many days now - with only short breaks between systems. That blocking high of the last many weeks is long gone. The storm doors have opened with an active jet driving systems right at us.

But, before all of this happened, Mr. PSP and I did manage to get our trip to Mt. Rainier accomplished last week and it was a wonderful trip. We stayed at the lodge at Longmire (the only open facility in the park now that summer is over) and we had a great time. Everything went perfectly. We split time between the lodge and the Great Outdoors in enjoyable proportions. Many of you have seen our photos posted on WU and I appreciate all of the kind words and support of them! We spent three days up at the Mountain, and in that time we NEVER saw a single cloud!! That is an incredible feat by itself, any time of the year, but especially this far into October, for anyone who doesn't know the area. So the sunshine was spectacular, and the temperatures, while a bit nippy in the morning and evening, was very comfortable for hiking during the day - as long as you didn't spend too long in shade. The elevation at Longmire is 2700' and at Paradise, the only other area really open at this time of year, is around 5400', so autumn temperatures do dip. Because of our long dry spell, the mountain was rather bare of snow - an unusual sight, but already that has changed now. Between two days we hiked about 10 miles through the meadows and onto higher ridges - I think our highest attained elevation was 6600 feet, and the views of the mountain and surrounding landscape was just stunning - no matter where you looked - and certainly vastly highlighted by the very wonderful fall colors all over the slopes and valleys. Brilliant reds, mostly, with some golds, accented by alpine greens and deep blue skies. Truly spectacular!! And, we were among only a few people up there to soak it all in. The crowds of summer are long, long gone and much of the time we felt like the only people up there. The trails were all bare (during summer they are still snowed in, often, till really late in that season) and they did not even have any mud to contend with! Perfect hiking conditions. Park staff were busy winterizing the park and it appeared to be mostly ready. Buildings at Paradise had their giant steel and wooden shutters slammed and locked in place over the very large windows and doors (closed for the season), all campgrounds and picnic areas closed, and the loop road closed. One interesting thing was one day we hiked up to Myrtle Falls. That is me standing on the bridge in that photo with that title. About 24 hours later we hiked past the same falls, but this time the railings all had been removed from the bridge! Kind of like magic, they were gone, but the floor of the bridge remained to cross. It kind of seemed like the sidewalks were being rolled up right under our feet in places, but they knew what they were doing. The weather changed drastically the very next day after we left and snow has already fallen in those areas just after our wonderful weather. We had the very last sunset of the year that was part of a different season and seemingly, time.

Quite a few more photos are over on my photo section of this blog, if you'd like to see the rest of them.

October 16

Sunrise: 7:29 AM --- Sunset: 6:17 pm (PDT)
(losing 3 min, 18 sec tomorrow)

Updated: 2:24 PM GMT on October 31, 2012

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Weather has been a lifelong passion for me; while my husband and 4 kids all in college and beyond, one now married, have patiently gone along with me!

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