Are You Ready For Winter? Now Is The Time To Prepare – Everett Post
The calendar has rolled over to September and while summer continues until the fall equinox on the 22nd, the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, giving a taste of fall in the air.
September is National Preparedness Month. Given the recent regional hot dry summer weather, and avoiding wildfires, smoke and air quality concerns thus far while watching other parts of the country suffer excessive heat, wildfires, heavy rainfall and flooding, this kind of weather is a key reason to prepare for North Sound fall and winter weather in advance.
Now is the time to get ready for the potential of strong damaging wind storms, flooding and landslides, and lowland snow and ice. With an unusual third La Nina anticipated for this winter season, these kinds of weather may be on the way.
To refresh, La Nina is when sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean tropical waters, the waters west of Peru, are cooler than average. The cooling of these waters results in the North Pacific storm track spending quite a bit of time at Washington’s latitude as opposed to toward California, and hence the greater likelihood of adverse fall and winter weather.
La Nina winters rank as number one for lowland snow compared to El Nino and Neutral conditions. La Nina also has a number two ranking for significant flooding and strong damaging wind storms.
The wind storm season usually begins in October. The nation’s strongest non-tropical wind storm in American history occurred on October 12th, 1962 – the Columbus Day Storm. Winds in the North Sound exceeded 100 mph knocking down thousands of trees, damaging homes and utilities, and power was out for over two weeks. The region usually gets a strong damaging wind storm about every 10 years and the last one was the Hanukah Eve Wind Storm of December 2006. The North Sound is way overdue.
The flood season usually gets rolling in late October and runs through March. Flooding is number one for Presidentially Declared Natural Disasters in Washington. Given how a warmer global atmosphere holds more moisture, any storms that carry a higher volume of moisture can produce heavier rain amounts in the same time period. It is quite possible these wet storms could dump more rain and result in more significant flooding than in the past. This issue has been the case not only across the country in recent years, but also around the world.
The lowland snow season typically starts in mid-November and extends into March. Snow not only disrupts transportation, but often results in power outages as well. Recall the last two La Nina winters in a row have produced snow across the North Sound.
Are you ready for these hazards or perhaps an earthquake too? Now is the time to prepare. For helpful tips and checklists for your home, car, pets and more, go to ready.gov or the CDC Winter Preparedness website. One key item for your home, business, school, health care facility or place of worship is a NOAA Weather Radio all-hazards – a life saver for the price of a pair of shoes. Remember, when you are weather aware, you are weather prepared. To help protect you, your family and business, take action today.