Back in June 2012, the FAA launched a study called “Greener Skies Over Seattle,” as part of its larger NextGen initiative to upgrade air traffic control nationwide. (If you follow the news of such things, you may already have heard about previous tests without passengers, in the summer of 2010.)

Now, if you live below a flight path on the north and south SeaTac approaches, you might be noticing a change in the skies above you. In theory, this is all for the better, as the traffic control upgrade is supposed to reduce jet noise, save fuel, and in the future allow a greater volume of arrivals and departures, even in limited-visibility conditions.

For the next six months, the FAA will be analyzing real-world flight data from Greener Skies, in part to continue to optimize, and in part for an environmental assessment process. To provide feedback, make plans to drop in at a public meeting:

• September 5, 2012, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Federal Way Library, 34200 1st Way South, Federal Way, WA 98003
• September 6, 2012, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Ballard Branch Library, 5614 22nd Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98107

You can also email [email protected] by September 14, 2012. The final assessment should be published by the end of the year. (Further study will be conducted in 2014, 2018, and 2023.)

The airline leader in this is Alaska Airlines, which thanks to more challenging Alaskan conditions, has been leveraging technology to fly in and out of airports with satellite-guided precision since the mid-1990s. Together with its subsidiary airlines, Horizon, Alaska carries about half the air passengers at SeaTac (the airport served some 35 million passengers in 2011), and its aircraft are already equipped to implement the alphabet-soup advances the FAA plans: RNAV, RNP, and ODP.

That said, any airline flying more recent Boeing 737s, 757s, and 767-300s or the Airbus A-319, -320, and -321 will likely be able to use the new instrumentation procedures (Canadair’s CRJ-700 and -900 regional jets make the grade, too)–93 percent of SeaTac jets should fall in this category. Traffic from the north, south, and west is most affected:Cranky Flier notes that, “For Alaska, that means 75 percent of its traffic (and around 60 percent of Horizon’s traffic) can take advantage” of the new flight paths.

The tricky part is to integrate satellite-guided approaches with controller-handled approaches. At SeaTac, that means that jets will be cleared for an autopilot approach from as far as 40 miles out (northwest approach) and 140 miles out (southwest), giving controllers time to slot in other planes that need their guidance.

Planes using the optimized descent profile (ODP) will make a single, long “gliding” descent, all at flight idle, which is where the fuel savings come in. Overall, the impact is not huge–it’s expected to provide a one-percent reduction in fuel usage. But airlines would prefer not to spend the extra money if they can help it, and it does reduce fuel usage (and its concomitant pollution) specifically over Seattle.

They also begin that glide at altitude, so they can remain higher up (with less noise making it down to rooftop level) for a longer portion of their approach. Residents close in to SeaTac won’t likely notice much difference in noise-per-jet, but outlying areas might. The new paths are expected to cut 14 to 26 miles of currently dog-legged southern approaches, but will add to others.

A new, shorter western approach that takes southern arrivals over Elliott Bay, rather than over north Seattle, will have an obvious impact for north Seattle residents. But the FAA’s draft assessment (full documentation here) also says:

The new procedure is expected to increase slightly the number of flight miles flown for some aircraft, taking them farther north than at present. Instead of overflying northern portions of Kitsap County as now, more of that traffic would approach the runways from over Hansville and Puget Sound south of Island County.

The ramifications of the changes are a little mind-boggling, if you want to know what precisely the effects will be. Really, only time will tell. Consider that so much depends on which way the wind blows:

Because aircraft operate most effectively into the wind, and winds are always reported in the direction from which they are blowing, September is the most likely month to experience the use of northerly-oriented runways 34L, 34C, and 34R. Other months, the winds would tend to favor use of southerly oriented runways 16L, 16C, and 16R.

The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.

The SunBreak loves Victoria. There, we said it. Big sigh, batted eyelashes. Jay has been eating and drinking his way around: “A Voracious Journey to Victoria” and “Six Letters Spell Sensuality in Victoria,” and today we’re here to tell you how to do that while still getting those compliments on your toned calves.

Bicycling Victoria is the hot new tourist craze, and you don’t have to take our word for it, it’s right there in the Seattle Times, our local paper of record. Victoria is multi-modal, let’s be clear. You can be a hop-on on a bus, you can take those pint-sized “harbour ferry” tours, you can go by kayak, you can scooter past it all. You could spend the whole day on foot.

The Selkirk Trestle in Victoria, B.C. (Image: Michael van Baker/The SunBreak)

But a bicycle lets you cover a great deal of ground at a pace that’s still relaxing. You get to chat up locals when you get lost, and you can pull over to explore a side trail without people honking at you. It is $20 to bring your own bicycle on board theVictoria Clipper (space is at a premium) which makes Victoria’s bike rental rates very reasonable.

They average about $28 per day, and if the weather’s inviting, the selection of sizes may get picked over by midday. Luckily there are a few different options:CycleTreks (1000 Wharf Street), Cycle B.C. (685 Humboldt Street), Coastal Cycles(off the Galloping Goose Trail, 1-1610 Island Hwy), and Selkirk Station (also off the Goose, 80 Regatta Landing, kayak rentals, too). Cheapest are the used-bike anarcho-syndicalists, Recyclistas (25 Crease Ave), at $10 per day. Sports Rent (1950 Government Street) rents everything.

If you want to be absolutely sure, call ahead to reserve. Note also that Victoria requires you to wear a helmet on a bicycle. Rental places will throw helmets in, but if you’re finicky about your noggin, bring your own. If you have time, you can send off for four bike maps for just $10 from the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition. Most rental shops will have a tourist-style sheet that will inevitably lead you astray by leaving out streets.

Your four basic options are these: The Seaside touring route, where you follow mostly quiet roads along the water (you’ll be tempted to take that beachside multi-use path, but it’s for foot traffic, no bikes), the Galloping Goose (which forks off into the Lochside Trail) and the Interurban Trail. (Here’s a pdf of all of them.)

Galloping Goose is the longest, at 55 kilometers, or as we say here in the colonies, 34 miles. If you bike the whole route, you might want to stay overnight. For a good portion as you’re on the outskirts of Victoria, you ride along a busy highway, which is not that pleasant, but the views pick up at Portage Inlet.

The Lochside Trail, from Victoria to Swartz Bay, is 18 miles (29 km). You pass Swan Lake and a nature preserve (the trail leading in is a foot path only) fairly quickly. About seven miles in is Cordova Bay beach, on the ocean, which makes for fun out-and-back that still leaves you time to relax in Victoria.

The full Seaside route is 24 miles (40km), and is the most immediately scenic, ranging from beaches and expanses of ocean and sky to clusters of cottages and woods. It has a few hills (and a Mount Doug, if you care to summit), and it’s a fun half-day outing that, because it’s a loop, lands you right back in town.

You can’t mention biking without pointing out watering holes, and Victoria is happily well-provisioned on the microbrewery front. Spinnaker‘s is a gastro brewpub, which means that if you’re a sweaty cyclist, they will try to steer you upstairs to the taproom. They have a stout you should try. If you like that, they also advise you to try theKeepers Stout from Lighthouse Brewing Co. Not far from each other are Swan’s andCanoe. If you’re serious about pubcrawling, the Clipper people have a map of 21 establishments (pdf) you can check off.

The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.

U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez, who, before vilification begins, it must be noted kept the Sonics lease-breaking argument out of arbitration, dismissed yesterday a lawsuit brought against Washington State’s construction of a new SR 520 bridge. The lawsuit claimed that Washington’s Department of Transportation hadn’t conducted adequate review of alternatives before settling on a 6-lane expansion of the floating part of the bridge (growing to 12 lanes, counting on- and off-ramps, at Montlake).

“Our analysis was thorough and exhaustive, and we hope that the ruling by Judge Martinez puts an end to the debate about mobility improvements to this vital corridor,” said state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond. With the court’s decision, WSDOT can continue with construction of SR 520 improvements as planned and funded.

---

Small caveat: all the SR 520 improvements aren’t funded. The state is still searching for more than $2 billion of the $4.65-billion project, so that the floating bridge portion can connect to Montlake. So, financially at least, a huge caveat.

The verdict was not particularly surprising: WSDOT has been aggressive with its timeline for the bridge construction, which has the effect of creating a sunk investment if the project is delayed or halted. Opponents of the bridge’s expansion have haddifficulty bending any “ears of power.” In this economic climate, few are interested in taking the political hit sinking the mega-bridge would require. Besides, beyond the hundreds of millions of dollars already spent, many voters still believe extra lanes necessarily equal improvements in traffic flow.

Artist rendition of the future 520 (Image: WSDOT)

Still, this is a sobering finding for anyone who thinks that an environmental impact review would lead to outcomes that impact the environment less. The Coalition for a Sustainable 520 had plenty of arguments to make on that score (the Montlaker blog summarizes a few of them for you), not least the much-remarked-upon improvement in traffic flow that has come from tolling the existing 4-lane bridge, and the mostly-ignored requirement to define how an expansion would fit with state’s goals to reduce greenhouse gases.

In Judge Martinez’s view, the option of a tolled, 4-lane, “transit-optimized” bridge deserved consideration didn’t come into the question of “improving the mobility of people and goods across Lake Washington in the SR 520 corridor.” (Here is where Sightline’s now-29-part series on the decade-long plateau (and actual decline) in traffic volumes around the state makes good reading.) Thus, the final environmental impact statement could compare WSDOT’s 6-lane preferred alternative to doing nothing at all–and nothing else–and still present the “reasonable alternatives.”

The conclusion, that there are no reasonable alternatives to the preferred alternative, has a strikingly Politburo-esque tone. As does the rationale used to eliminate the tolled 4-lane option: The toll cost would impact the poor, and divert traffic to I-90. (WSDOT argues that it is fine to do both of these things if you are funding a megaproject.) Sound reasonable?

The SunBreak is an online magazine of news & culture. A conversation about the things on Seattle’s mind.

Spotted on Capitol Hill in 2010

A film that turned several areas of Capitol Hill into Seattle circa 2001 is ready for the big screen. Today, Grassroots opens at the Harvard Exit on Capitol Hill, after having filmed many of its scenes in the neighborhood. Director Stephen Gyllenhaal will be at all showings of his movie from Friday, June 22 to Sunday, June 24.

Filming on Capitol Hill took place starting in June 2010 — you may have seen this Pike/Pine bar turned into a coffee house or this man in a polar bear suit walking through the streets. Some of you may even appear as extras. Any of you we should watch for? Oh, by the way, the story also has its real-life Capitol Hill connections.

As Gyllenhaal sees it, Grassroots is meant to be an inspiring film about the little guy pushing back–”even though ‘too big to fail’ wasn’t around when I started making Grassroots,” he writes at HuffPo, “the idea of a bully rationalizing his right to run a playground was.”

There’s a curious tension in Grassroots between this urge to broad-brush a heroic uprising against some suitably powerful figure, and the movie’s smaller-scale personalities, their tinpot aspirations and quixotic conflicts. As an example of tender rapprochement, there’s a late scene where one character accepts a ride in another’s car. In another director’s hands, that could be farce, or satire, but from Gyllenhaal, it feels like an implicit admonition for us all to grow up and work for the common good.

The Comet stars as a coffee shop (Image: CHS)

The story of Grassroots hews in reworked-for-movies fashion to the actual history of Grant Cogswell’s surprisingly unthought-out, one-issue run for Seattle City Council in 2001, against sitting Councilman Richard McIver. As the movie tells it, Monorail monomaniac Cogswell has no traction in his race, until his handler Phil Campbell hits upon the idea of getting free publicity by suing the City of Seattle. Chutzpah!

(Image: CHS)

That plus Grant’s penchant for roaming around town in a polar bear suit — now part of a Twitter marketing strategy — is the sort of thing that energizes disaffected youth, who come out of the hipster woodwork to get involved in Cogswell’s campaign. Gyllenhaal gets, for what’s being called a comedy, a remarkably sober-sided performance from Jason Biggs as Campbell, the man who has to wrangle his obstreperous candidate, try to keep his relationship on life support, and ride herd on a gang on campaign volunteers.

Despite turning famed watering hole the Comet Tavern into a coffee house, Gyllenhaal otherwise keeps the movie’s visual sensibility fairly indie; people look suitably scruffy, the streets cold, the crisp mountains and early fall sunsets beautiful. Even Tom Arnold fits right in as a grumpy, harried bartender.

As Gyllenhaal points out, his set-in-2001 film points to much that would lie in the future: Even when he started work on it, he writes, “I couldn’t have predicted an Occupy Wall Street Movement and the issues it’s raised, nor the surreal Republican debates, Romney’s etch-a-sketch journey and the Democrats’ gentle drift towards the Tea Party.”

I’m not so sure prediction is the right word — these preoccupations, the tendency to construe events to fit a narrative, seem woven into Grassroots. Yes, Seattle and populism go together (we founded the Tea Party, after all) but when you look at what Gyllenhaal ignored from Campbell’s book, Zioncheck for President, there’s a consistent up-with-youth-activism theme that came from somewhere besides burnt-out-wreck Campbell. He had penned a cautionary tale about being caught in the grip of charismatic ideologies and not dealing constructively with mental problems.

As he told Seattlest back in the day: “What did we accomplish? Nothing. We lost. Grant quit politics and I left town, end of story.” (That said, Campbell is equable when it comes to the distance between his and Gyllenhaal’s take: “Hollywood Gutted My Book, But That’s OK.”)

Personally, I like Campbell’s flamethrower approach, and miss the spectre of Marion Zioncheck, who hovered over Campbell’s tragicomedy to provide proof that as bad as things get, there’s usually someone out there who’s got it worse. It gave context to Cogswell’s rantings about the Monorail’s purity v. other modalities (this cannot play especially well with today’s hipster Seattleites who can’t wait for the fatcats’ gold-plated lightrail to be extended). Besides, Campbell implicated himself in “going off the rails on the crazy train” that was the Cogswell campaign–and, by extension, the idea of being fired up too much by a charismatic or forceful leader.

For all its faults, Campbell’s book undertook to tell you the truth — about many things, including starting a campaign from scratch, the symptoms of bipolar disorder, transportation infrastructure, and the history of Northwest populism. Grassroots seems to want to dispense with the messiness in favor of a “small is beautiful” parable. It pulls this off, mostly (though, the introductions and exits for a few too many characters seem to have hit the editing room floor). With distance and time, it may even improve. It’s just hard not to imagine — knowing of the real-life Cogswell’s move to Mexico City — that that’s Gyllenhaal in the polar bear suit, shouting about things only beginning.

This year’s local gift-or-gag idea comes from the good people at PillowMob, who have a pillow-making operation over in Pike/Pine. You have to see it to believe it, but they’re printing 180-dpi photos on throw pillows, and the results are hilarious, creepy, and cute, depending on how you play it.

Currently you have your choice of oval (7 x 11 inches) or circular (9 x 9 inches) pillows, made from a machine-washable polyester shell and filling. They print out your photo (you upload it at their site) on one side, you choose a color/pattern for the reverse, and they sew the two pieces together. Because the oval is almost-to-scale face-sized, with a good crop, the pillow looks like a disembodied head. People making funny faces come off well, as do cute widdle kittums.

Surprisingly, even a kiwi fruit looks terrific. The photo-realistic detail you get from the 180-dpi printing opens up a whole range of creative options, when it comes to things that are oval and circular. How about a doughnut? Now you can have pillows that match your plates, for instance. Like that pattern you see on the street? Snap a picture and print it up (just make sure it’s in good light–Pillow Mob says shots with shadows don’t look great).

The pillows are $25 each, and because they’re taking off as a holiday gift idea, you’re now being promised delivery by mid-January if you order today. Or you can stop by their new Pike/Belmont home to see if they whip one our for you in person.

More Seattle arts and culture at TheSunBreak.com

You think you have to start planning for Christmas early–Strawberry Theatre Workshop‘s Greg Carter was kicking around holiday-themed ideas back in June. The advance planning has paid off with a benefit performance by the Jose Gonzales Trio of the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Peanuts-flavored magic happens at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway on Monday, December 5, at 7:30p. (tickets: $15).

Depending on how you feel about that trademark “alien visitors” line delivery you get on Peanuts specials, you may be happy to hear this particular evening is about the jazz music, rather than kid chorale. The trio was kind enough to post some samples from rehearsal: “Christmas Time Is Here” and “O Tannenbaum,” to get you into the spirit.

It’s music to remember childhood, with its heartaches and growing pains, by. I had a chance to talk a little with Gonzales about the enduring appeal of Vince Guaraldi‘s composition, which has to be notable in part for being Christmas music that’s not all that cheerful (the uptempo “Linus and Lucy” that everyone knows wasn’t written for holiday special), but like Charles Shulz’s kids, full of bittersweetness. The CBS executives of 1965  did not like jazz in their Peanuts, but Lee Mendelson, who had picked Guaraldi to soundtrack an unaired documentary on Shulz, stuck to his arranger.

Jose Gonzales

Vince Guaraldi played piano and Hammond organ with his trio, with drummer Jerry Granelli, and Fred Marshall on double bass. They were a West Coast jazz group from San Francisco, not Mendelson’s first choice, but when he heard their hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” on the radio, he was hooked.

Gonzales listed a few influences you can hear in Guaraldi’s piano: Satie, Ravel. As a performer, “he’s in that Bill Evans tradition,” he said, which Nat Hentoff agrees with in his appreciation of Guaraldi:

I had seen that total immersion before, and often, in a pianist of a different temperament, Bill Evans. His head coming very close to touching the piano keys, Bill Evans eventually was the piano. Bill, however, became an icon. But Vince Guaraldi, who died of a heart attack in 1976 at 47 between sets during a gig, has not become a legend.

It’s not that Guaraldi didn’t do well–look at his discography–but with the benefit of hindsight, we’re all CBS executives. Of course, Gonzales also says there’s a story about Guaraldi flashing a knife as a warning to chatterers during his performance–”he had a bit of a temper”–so that immersion made its own demands.

Gonzales and his trio can be seen and heard all around Seattle on jazz missions that don’t feature Snoopy dances. You can hear them at the Sip wine bars (both Seattle and Issaquah) on Thursdays. First Saturdays of the month, they play at Madrona’s St. Clouds restaurant; on second Saturdays, Serafina on Eastlake. Further afield, they’re at the Scotch and Vine in Des Moines every other Friday. Keep up with them on Facebook to hear about all their shows.

More Seattle arts and culture at TheSunBreak.com

Thanks to KIRO’s Twitter, we were alerted to GossipandGabber’s YouTube video of the aliens “fucking landing” earlier this week in Seattle. Note: they don’t land. You see a rectangle “formed” by four blinking lights slowly move across the Tuesday night sky, while the videographer calls to her friends, murmurs how exciting it is to have spotted a UFO, and says, “Holy shit, here comes another one.”

An unnamed co-UFO spotter hypothesizes that it could be floating luminaria (aka “glowing lanterns”) — like we saw last November over Capitol Hill — but the narrator quite rightly dismisses this in favor of the fun of the initial “aliens” notion. “I’m so putting this on YouTube!” she says.

When two lights break formation and move toward each other, her friend says, “Oh, look they’re going to kiss. Kiss aliens!”

Hands down, it’s the most entertaining UFO video ever. Normally, it’s just a jerky camera and some heavy breathing dude going “Oh, man, oh, shit.” Which becomes a little creepy after a while.

A Seattlepi.com reader wrote in to say that he saw something similar: “I was driving eastbound on 164th St SE near Mill Creek around 430pm.  It was near sunset and I noticed a huge red light east over the foothills.  There were 4 lights in a square that were pulsating.”

That doesn’t sound like space junk suggested by Marius Strom, president of the Seattle Astronomical Society, when the Seattle Times asked what it might be. Curious people called into news media all over the area, along with the FAA and National Weather Service. The last two confirmed that it wasn’t a plane or anything weather-related that they knew of. Really, the only sane conclusion then is that invasion is imminent.

I guess it makes sense that Austin-based Tabbedout would choose Capitol Hill’s Poquitos as basecamp for their Seattle launch — Capitol Hill smushed into a taco (metaphorically) is pretty much Austin, right?

The Tabbedout mobile phone app (in iPhone and Android flavors) lets you walk into a bar or restaurant, open a tab without reaching for your credit card, eat and drink, and pay — all on your phone. Well, not the eating and drinking part, unless you are messy.

If you have ever waited 20 minutes to pay because your waiter got slammed just as you called for the check, or got stuck in a massive line at the end of a show because everyone is paying at once (or trying to), or have blithely walked out of a bar with your credit card tab open, you can see the benefit.

As it turns out, that’s the benefit for the bar or restaurant as well: running credit cards and receipts back and forth to customers during the busiest times of the night doesn’t generate sales. Automating the payment process lets servers concentrate on serving food and drinks.

Right now, Tabbedout is in Seattle, Austin, and Portland, with Houston and Dallas soon to come. The company, established in 2009, has some 400 merchants signed on, and their software integrates with existing point-of-sale systems. (In Seattle, that’s largely DinerWare.) For a one-time installation fee, Tabbedout will install their software on each POS terminal, and then the fun begins.

Tabbedout merchants on Capitol Hill (and nearby)

• Auto Battery
• Central Cinema
• Grim’s
• Li’l Woody’s
• Poquitos
• Unicorn

Because, unlike other mobile payment options, Tabbedout doesn’t use NFC, there’s no special hardware or swiping. That means it’s possible for you to open a tab at a participating bar without even being there–if you want to chip in for someone’s birthday party remotely, for instance.

Here’s how it works. Download the app, and create a profile with credit card(s) data. When you open a tab, you receive a short code on your phone that you show the server, who uses it to identify you on their sales system. While the tab is open, you’re connected live, and can see your order itemized as you go along. When you close out, you also get an itemized receipt by email. The merchant is allowed to set a minimum tip (which you can adjust up), so no one gets stiffed, and your friends with Tabbedout can also join your tab…if you are blessed with friends who are willing to split the bill.

If you forget to close out, Tabbedout allows the merchant to close you out at the end of the night anyway. The software queries your credit card as you open the tab, so you won’t get stuck with an expired card and a bill. It’s likely you will have enabled a security code for your phone overall, but just in case, you can also set a Tabbedout-specific security code to make sure it’s really you doing the tabbing.

Again, Tabbedout takes care of the payment part. You do all the ordering the usual way. Presently you can search for locations by state and city name, and zip code; as the list of participating venues increases, Tabbedout is going to have to let you drill down a little more–certainly by a search on names. When you open a tab, it also lets you check in with social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare, presumably so all your cheapskate acquaintances can hustle over and get in on your largesse.

If you have used Uber before — hey, they’re on Capitol Hill, too — this will all seem familiar to you, especially that thrill of slipping out without dealing with any payment rigmarole. You enjoy yourself, and then you depart.

More Seattle arts and culture at TheSunBreak.com

Last year’s November snowstorm caught Capitol hill — and the city — by surprise (Image: Michael van Baker)

When you are stuck at home in a snowstorm this winter, you’ll be able to pinpoint the exact streets that you can’t use, thanks to work done in the off-season by Seattle’s Department of Transportation.  The Winter Weather portal includes a street map to track closures and deicing and plowing work as it’s done.

Most importantly, the map tells you (you can download a printable pdf version) which streets the city is dedicated to keeping open. You can see for yourself how well they are doing with webcams throughout the city (forget Ice Road Truckers, 12 cameras are now providing live video).

Otherwise, if you live on a particularly steep hill, you may want to stock up in preparation for a few days snowbound:

Steep topography, like the Queen Anne Counterbalance, First Hill and the intersection of 35th Avenue SW and Avalon, add to the complexity of snow fighting in Seattle. Hills can consume lots of time and effort and still not be drivable. A few stuck cars can tie up an important arterial for hours.

Any “snow event” will also be tweeted.

Here on CHS, they’ll help keep you up to date on the latest local conditions and will piece all of this new information together — with your help and reports, of course.

Meanwhile, before the battery on your phone dies, you can check in on Seattle City Light outages at their new mobile-friendly City Light site. Top of the options is the ability to Pay Your Bill! So that’s nice. A dedicated iPhone app is said to be making its way through Apple’s approval process, so stay tuned.

As a reminder that crisp fall days and leaf-kicking are at an end, the National Weather Service is predicting:

…A VIGOROUS COLD FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH WESTERN WASHINGTON DURING THE DAY FRIDAY…COOL WEATHER WILL BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS
BEGINNING LATER FRIDAY…

On his blog, Cliff Mass explains why this front presages the start of the La Niña Express: “If a trough develops with more amplitude and the ridge extends more into AK, we approach the canonical snow pattern. […] On Saturday…more of the same, but a bit stronger.  Expect a low snow level and decent snows in the mountain.  The Mayor and SDOT don’t have to worry…yet.”

More Seattle arts and culture at TheSunBreak.com