A few hundred Capitol Hill residents spent this morning in the dark. According to Seattle City Light, 328 customers were without service starting around 5:24 AM this morning when a tree branch damaged lines. Traffic lights were out on 10th Ave north between Mercer and Roanoke according to a text we received from a reader this morning. That power is now restored. Overnight winds reached 25 miles per hour at the NOAA station down on Lake Washington and more than 30 miles per hour in West Seattle. Meteorologist Cliff Mass says there is a chance that Seattle is about to get pounded by an even larger windstorm this week.

Stranded Buses on Broadway - Originally uploaded by mvbseattle

One thing is certain -- Seattle's next mayor (next results drop: 4:30 PM!) won't have the same old King County Metro snow plan to drag him down. Metro officials have unveiled two more components of an Emergency Service Route Network designed to show people that they did something keep buses moving this winter if our snowy, icy weather trends continue.

• The first is Metro's new emergency routes.

  Route 90 - Download PDF

  
  
  Here's what Seattle Transit Blog had to say about the plan:
  
  

  The 70 routes are basically a core set of Metro’s most important routes, minus some that are obviously impassable in severe weather.  However, there are interesting tidbits for armchair planners, like a new Route 90 that serves as Capitol Hill/First Hill/Downtown Circulator, and a modified Route 39 that is truncated to run between Seward Park and the two nearest light rail stations.

• The second component is a new alerts system that will post route updates on the Metro homepage and send updates on your bus routes to your e-mail or phone. You can sign up for the service here.

These initiatives plus the city's revamped snow plowing strategy -- check out which streets get cleared, which don't -- address a lot of the issues and ideas raised here when we went through a CHS groupthink on Metro's snow problems while the failures were still fresh in mind.

And, if all of this doesn't work, there's always checking in with your friends and sharing information.

A wind-driven lightning and hailstorm that quickly passed across the city also rumbled across Capitol Hill late tonight. The storm arrived on Capitol Hill around 10:42 if you believe Twitter -- about 5 minutes after reports started spreading across the social messaging service's Tweets from the West Seattle area. In the 15-minute window around the storm's coming and going, there were 1,267 Tweets about 'thunder' in the Seattle area.

Here's what a few of you had to say about it:

moohaha: Seattle Cap Hill: huge lightening + thunder. Cloud covered Space Needle in <5 min. Now it's hailing

SEATTLE

eliranderson: Wicked hail storm on Cap Hill.

Seattle, WA, USA

Power on the Hill is still on (fingers crossed) but there are reports of outages in Leschi and Queen Anne was dark earlier this evening. The Western Washington forecast says to expect more of the same blustery wet weather through Friday and into Saturday.

Here's a video of the heavy downpour from...

We need to find out who, exactly, to thank for it but the weather station located inside Volunteer Park is back online. The station is part of Weather Underground's network of 'Personal Weather Stations' recording microclimates across the world. The station went offline about six weeks ago so we had been reporting temperatures from a location on Boren -- so not Capitol Hill! We use the data to power the weather widget in the CHS sidebar and, while Seattle's weather is mostly drama (and news) free, it's cool to be able to take a quick look to find out just how many sweaters you need to throw on before leaving home.

This afternoon the city of Seattle released their new plan to cope with the big snow storms that probably won't happen this year.

They've put a new snow-knowledgeable man in charge of the storm response, hiring Monty Sedlak from Arapahoe County Colorado as the new Director of Street Maintenance. And they've decided to use more salt and less sand, better communication with citizens, and new technology such as GPS to track the department's trucks

The city has also released a new map that shows where they'll muster their snow removal forces. It divides things up into four categories:

• Level 1 (dark green on the map) streets get the most attention, with a commitment to keep them bare and wet at all times
• Level 2 (dark blue) streets are next, with a commitment to keep at least one lane bare and wet in each direction
• Level 3 (light green) streets will only get attention for curves, hills, and stopping zones
• All other streets, mostly non-arterials, will likely get minimal cleanup resources

Here's the old map:

In addition to the new granular planning for curves and trouble spots, you can see that the new additions are plowing Pike all the way to downtown, and clearing 15th Ave between Madison and John and Thomas between 15th and 23rd.

The seasons on Capitol Hill, this year at least, know no calendar.

On the Brink of Summer's End uploaded by sea turtle to the CHS flickr pool

UPDATE:
Parks spokesperson Dewey Potter reveals the cold hard reality:

I wish we could! We budget very carefully for our outdoor staffed summer programs (pools, beaches) by assuming that there will be a certain number of dates we won't open because of the weather.

 

As the weather this summer was so good overall, we met that number of dates exactly and don't have any funds left. The other issue is that most of our lifeguards are students who have returned to school or college.

 

I'm sorry, and wish we could stay open longer.

 

Dewey

Original Report:
Maybe it's not the most pressing issue on the Hill but it does fall into one important category: Seems like it's something it wouldn't be too hard to do something about. This weekend past was supposed to be the final opportunity for Capitol Hill kids to play in one of our parks' wading pools or splash features. Instead, it poured rain and, we found out, the wading pools don't even think about opening if the forecast calls for temperatures below 70.

So, that's it. The 2009 pool season is over. But check this:

Forecast from Weather Underground

We need an emergency wading pool season extension. This week is going to be hard enough on the kiddies. E-mail out to Parks to see what's possible.

Sadly, it looks like the last few days of operation for Capitol Hill's wading pools and spray parks won't be sunshine-filled. Both the Volunteer and Cal Anderson park pools close for the season Monday evening. News isn't any better for Miller Park's spray feature -- it shuts down on Monday, too. So, when the sun breaks through the clouds, make the most of it, get your swim diaper on and enjoy a few last moments of summer.

Bus Plow Originally uploaded by AdonisPhotos

Many will say that Seattle's incumbent mayor Greg Nickels failed to make it through the city's primary and into the fall general election because of snow.

As much fun as we had playing on the streets, Capitol Hill also got tired of slipping on sidewalks. And some dangerous stuff happened.

But the weather wasn't really the problem. The problem was information. Seattle was hit with a situation that required systems of communication and information distribution that it did not have. The city's dying newspapers couldn't keep up and City Hall's various departments were too busy trying to dig out from underneath the snow and ice to turn to their antiquated systems of information distribution. They couldn't connect information to the neighborhoods and streets where it was needed. The County's Metro bus system fared no better despite its established Web site. There was no planned information core to power Seattle. And so it slipped on the icy sidewalks and tried to make...

Can't help you tonight. But for 199 bucks, you can get a room at the Silver Cloud Inn at Broadway and Madison on Friday night and enjoy this:

Photo: Silver Cloud Inn

Definitely beats most of these solutions.

Here is a look at what Capitol Hill looked like on a day where the thermometer hit an 'unofficial' high of 105.5 °F.

Got a hot pic? Post a comment.

pre-movie drinks at Joe Bar
Originally uploaded by yancy9

Looking at the hourly data at Sea-Tac Airport, it appears that we have broken the record for highest minimum temperature in Seattle history.
-- Cliff Mass, meteorologist, July 29, 2009

As Dr. Mass reports, we've already reached one heat record today and another is likely on its way. Seattle's record high for Sea-Tac airport measurements: 100 degrees on July 20, 2004.

As for on-Hill measurement, I found a link in a comment on the Mass blog to what is reportedly a measurement unit atop the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. Here is the data for this 'unofficial' Capitol Hill weather station. It reports a low this morning of 73.6 °F and a rapidly rising high of 97.3 °F as of 11:07 AM.

What's your strategy to survive the hottest day ever on Capitol Hill? Any guesses on today's 'unofficial' Volunteer Park high? Passes to Northwest Film Forum to person who comes closest to high recorded today at station KWASEATT110. Ties broken by judge's choice of best 'beat the heat' solution. Guesses must be posted by 4 PM

Offical CHS HQ Thermometer

UPDATE 7/27/09 3:59 PM 95.4 degrees!: Warning extended through Friday night!

Nothing like a government issued warning to give things the right level of freaking out. The National Weather Service has issued an EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING for Seattle through Thursday evening. Temperatures are forecast into the upper 90s this week. It's not all fun and games. Extreme heat is tough on the older population and also can be dangerous for goths and pets. So, if you have elderly neighbors, a goth or a dog, take them out for a drink tonight.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PDT THURSDAY...

...AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 6 PM PDT THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PDT THURSDAY. THE AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 6 PM PDT THURSDAY. THE HEAT ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

HOT AND HUMID CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH MUCH OF THIS WEEK ACROSS THE REGION. HIGH TEMPERATURES FROM THE UPPER 80S TO MID 90S WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY RATHER HUMID CONDITIONS AND ONLY LIGHT BREEZES. TEMPERATURES AT NIGHT WILL REMAIN QUITE WARM...FALLING ONLY INTO THE 60S FOR A COUPLE HOURS LATE AT NIGHT IN MOST PLACES. EVEN HOTTER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WEDNESDAY AS TEMPERATURES RISE WELL INTO THE 90S...WITH MID 80S TO MID 90S STILL EXPECTED ON THURSDAY AS WELL.

IN ADDITION...THE STABLE AIR MASS ALOFT WILL LIMIT THE DISPERSION OF POLLUTANTS ACROSS THE AREA AND MAY LEAD TO DETERIORATING AIR QUALITY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS...STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE BUILDUP OF POLLUTANTS...CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL AIR QUALITY AGENCY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

&&

$$

 

---

Air Stagnation Advisory

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 352 AM PDT MON JUL 27 2009

 

WAZ505-507>509-280000- /O.UPG.KSEW.HT.Y.0002.090727T1900Z-090730T0800Z/ /O.NEW.KSEW.EH.W.0001.090727T1052Z-090731T0100Z/ /O.EXT.KSEW.AS.Y.0002.090727T1900Z-090731T0100Z/ EAST PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS-EVERETT AND VICINITY- SEATTLE/BREMERTON AREA-TACOMA AREA- 352 AM PDT MON JUL 27 2009

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PDT THURSDAY... ...AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 6 PM PDT THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PDT THURSDAY. THE AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 6 PM PDT THURSDAY. THE HEAT ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

HOT AND HUMID CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH MUCH OF THIS WEEK ACROSS THE REGION. HIGH TEMPERATURES FROM THE UPPER 80S TO MID 90S WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY RATHER HUMID CONDITIONS AND ONLY LIGHT BREEZES. TEMPERATURES AT NIGHT WILL REMAIN QUITE WARM...FALLING ONLY INTO THE 60S FOR A COUPLE HOURS LATE AT NIGHT IN MOST PLACES. EVEN HOTTER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WEDNESDAY AS TEMPERATURES RISE WELL INTO THE 90S...WITH MID 80S TO MID 90S STILL EXPECTED ON THURSDAY AS WELL.

IN ADDITION...THE STABLE AIR MASS ALOFT WILL LIMIT THE DISPERSION OF POLLUTANTS ACROSS THE AREA AND MAY LEAD TO DETERIORATING AIR QUALITY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUSLY HOT TEMPERATURES WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE LIKELY. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS...STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE BUILDUP OF POLLUTANTS...CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL AIR QUALITY AGENCY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

An(other) unusal site on Broadway

A record-tying 29 staight days without spring rain came to an end this morning with puddles on Capitol Hill, rain slickers and, yes, even an umbrella or two -- just in time for summer.

Winds that materialized seemingly instantly just before 9 PM have quickly transformed a warm June night on Capitol Hill. The heavy hot air has been blown away by a series of strong gusts that rattle trees and living spaces and have filled the evening with the sounds of emergency sirens, popping transformers and other peculiar noises. Around 9:50 PM, not long after a 'pop' sound, St. Joe's bells chimed. Once.

Seattle PI notes how dramatic and weird the shift in weather was across the area:

The temperature dropped an incredible 16 degrees in one hour at Sea-Tac, and winds went from a sultry 6 mph to 23 mph with a recorded gust of almost 36 mph.

The National Weather Service's forecast discussion page indicates the agency's current thinking that this is just a wind event, and that the thunderstorms that swept through Oregon earlier today are not expected to re-emerge in the Puget Sound area.

UPDATE: Cliff Mass called it at 8:22 PM. And explains it all.

Power is reportedly out in some areas of Seattle but...

Check your basement. Check the trees. Enjoy a walk in the rain even though it makes you look like a wet rat. Make it through tonight's thunderstorm:

SHORT TERM...THE PUGET SOUND CONVERGENCE ZONE HAS BECOME QUITE ACTIVE THIS EVENING WITH SOME THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS NORTHEAST KITSAP...SOUTH SNOHOMISH...AND KING COUNTIES. CELLS ARE TRACKING ESE ALONG THE CONVERGENCE ZONE AS THEY REFORM NEAR POULSBO. WHILE THE CELLS HAVE SHOWN SOME TENDENCY TO SHOW VERY WEAK ROTATION AT TIMES...ROTATION HAS NOT BEEN CONSISTENT THROUGH MORE THAN ONE LEVEL AND HAS NOT TENDED TO PERSIST FOR MORE THAN 2 VOLUME SCANS. ONLY A FEW STRIKES OF LIGHTNING HAVE BEEN REPORTED WITH THE CONVERGENCE ZONE...ALL THIS EVENING AND IN KING/SNOHOMISH COUNTIES. RADAR DATA SHOWS 0.25 INCH HAIL WITH THE CELL AROUND WEST SEATTLE AT 810 PM AND KBFI HAS HAD SOME SMALL HAIL...BUT CELLS HAVE NOT SHOW A TENDENCY TO SHOW MUCH VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT SO REPORTS HAVE BEEN RARE.

And you'll be fine:

WHILE WE HAVE HAD A WET MAY SO FAR...TOP THREE WETTEST AT SEATAC SINCE RECORDS BEGAN...WE HAVE HAD NICE DRY SPELLS. THE NEXT RATHER PROLONGED DRY SPELL WILL BEGIN LATE WED AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. THE WARMING TREND WILL BE GRADUAL WITH LOWER 60S WED...MID AND UPPER 60S THU...AND NEAR 70 FRI.

It rained so much on May 5th that a near-100-year-old elm uprooted from the soggy soil and tipped onto wires above a $4 million Capitol Hill mansion. But that wasn't the only damage done that rainy night. Seattle PI details an incident pretty common throughout the leafy streets of Capitol Hill's swankier streets -- the dreaded sewer back-up:

King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen and her husband are cleaning out their basement after a sewer back-up flooded their Capitol Hill home on May 5 during a heavy rainstorm, according to a claim for damages recently filed with the city of Seattle.

Inveen filed the paperwork May 11, though the total cost of repair hasn't been added up, according to a copy of the claim form.

"We probably had about 4 inches of sludge in our basement," Inveen told seattlepi.com. "It's much less of a mess now. The carpet has been ripped out, a couple feet of wallboard have been cut out, and at least it doesn't smell anymore."

It was an unusually wet May deluge for the Hill. The...

Chainsaws are buzzing. Workers from Seattle Tree Preservation, the company brought in to handle the job, are limbing the giant Harvard Ave tree in preparation for removing it entirely. Power is cut to the wires that continue to support the tree as the branches are clipped and dropped to the ground.

The tree is a 90-foot elm with a diameter of more than 32 inches. At those measurements, the tree calculates out to more than 80 years old though people in the neighborhood said they have been told the tree is more than 100 years old.

The incident began last night as wet soil, light winds and a heavy canopy of leaves caused the tree to lean into power wires, threatening a $4 million home and closing down the street through this morning.

Rick Sheridan, spokesperson for Seattle Department of Transportation, said that the city's urban forestry expert examined the old elm last night and again this morning and determined that the roots had shifted so much that the tree posed a significant danger to the street and the...

If there are any blossoms left on trees or fragile flowers you haven't enjoyed yet, better do it today. National Weather Service says things are going to get windy and very rainy starting tonight:

more backyard pink geraniums
Originally uploaded by linder_seattle

AN USUALLY STRONG WEATHER SYSTEM FOR MAY WILL MOVE THROUGH WESTERN WASHINGTON TONIGHT. SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS A DEVELOPING SURFACE LOW CURRENTLY NEAR 40N/140W. HIGH CLOUDS WAY OUT AHEAD OF THE SYSTEM HAVE ALREADY MOVED OVER WESTERN WASHINGTON THIS MORNING WITH THE CLOUD DECK THICKENING AND LOWERING AS THE DAY WEARS ON.

AS THE FRONT MOVES THROUGH WESTERN WASHINGTON PRESSURE RISE QUICKLY BEHIND THE FRONT WITH THE KOLM-KBLI GRADIENTS PREDICTED TO BE BETWEEN 6 AND 7 MB BY 12Z. WITH THE STRONG PRESSURE RISES BEHIND THE FRONT WILL GO AHEAD AND ISSUE A WIND ADVISORY FOR THE INTERIOR PORTIONS OF WESTERN WASHINGTON FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT UNTIL 8 AM TUESDAY MORNING FOR SOUTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH.

IN ADDITION TO THE WIND THIS SYSTEM SOME TROPICAL STORM REMNANTS EMBEDDED IN THE SYSTEM COMBINED WITH THE STRONG WINDS ALOFT WILL MAKE FOR SOME SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL ESPECIALLY ALONG THE SOUTH SLOPES OF THE OLYMPICS WHERE 24 PRECIPITATION AMOUNT COULD REACH 3 INCHES. NORMAL MONTHLY PRECIPITATION FOR SEATTLE IN MAY IS 1.78 INCHES. WE COULD EASILY GET HALF THAT AMOUNT WITH THE RAIN WITH THIS SYSTEM AND THE SHOWER ACTIVITY BEHIND THE FRONT TUESDAY. WINDS DIMINISHING RAPIDLY TUESDAY MORNING.

God help the magnolias.

Thanks to mrzarquon for sharing this booze, Mexican Coke, lime and Ranco Bravo taco burrito fueled photo map of a tour through Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park and Broadway on the most beautiful day we've seen since October. Even got a shot of the dude in a gnome hat sitting in a tree in the park. Bongos not pictured. Happy sunshine.

When you looked out the window and saw snow falling this morning, you probably said some variant of what we said.

"Snow? No!"

"No way!

Enjoy it, or don't, early because it's supposed to turn to rain. 35 degrees right now at CHS HQ with big white fluffy flakes that are starting to stick an hour into the proceedings. Meanwhile, Andrew weighs in with an interesting tip for forecasting our weather based on jet traffic over Capitol Hill.

UPDATE: Found this lovely picture of a snowy Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Nicholas in Zinfandellen's Twitter feed.

This weekend addition to the CHS Flickr pool certainly sums it up. Thanks for sharing sweetwankle.

Because it is our duty to make sure you are fully prepared for all things, CHS has created this special bulletin with two very important announcements.

1. Tonight, you must (yes, you have to) turn your clocks forward one hour. So, when you wake up tomorrow at what would have been 8a today, it will now be 9a and you will have the uneasy sensation that you have lost something important. This will keep your life in alignment with the rest of the people in your neighborhood. More good news: Your car radio's time will be correct again.
2. It's probably going to snow tonight -- and the next night and maybe the next night:
   

   TONIGHT...SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH...EXCEPT LOCALLY UP TO 2 INCHES ON HIGHER TERRAIN. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S TO MID 30S. SOUTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

   SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. HIGHS NEAR 40. SOUTHWEST WIND TO 10 MPH.

   SUNDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS IN THE MID 20S TO LOWER 30S. NORTHEAST WIND NEAR 10 MPH BECOMING SOUTH...

We recently discussed a few ideas to help Metro perform better in winter weather. Metro has taken some of the advice and rolled out some new communitcation tools just in time for this weekend's possible snow:

To get the latest Metro Transit messages on Twitter, go to: www.twitter.com/kcnews. The King County Alert blog is online at: www.kingcounty.gov/kcnews.

These two new features will be the latest tools in a growing list that Metro uses to provide service information. Also, depending on the magnitude of bus service disruption due to weather or other conditions, public information staff from other departments will join the Metro communication effort. Rapidly changing conditions may delay posting of route-specific service disruptions on Metro’s Web pages, but the new communication tools will help Metro and bus riders share information.

It's a good move to see. Now let's see if Metro can put these tools to good use.