Put your feet in a bowl of ice water, an ice pack on your neck, and imagine yourself on Beacon Hill, almost exactly seven months ago:
Category Archives: Weather
Open post: Ideas for coping with the heat
If you’re not lucky enough to have air conditioning, or if you’re getting a bit stir-crazy being trapped at home by your A/C, what are some places to head to, easily accessible from the hill, where you can hang out for a bit in a cooler atmosphere?
The Beacon Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library has air conditioning. Seventeen branches do. (I’m so sorry, Columbia City — sounds like your A/C-less branch might even be closed today!)
Wandering around inside Red Apple is refreshing, particularly near meats and in the frozen food aisle, lazily pondering which frozen fudge bar or ice cream sandwich would be best, but mostly chilling in the flood of cold air while standing there with the freezer door open.
Last night, we wanted to get out and get a meal somewhere cool with good food and drinks. I recalled the Collins Pub is just a half-block from the Pioneer Square tunnel station. A few blocks walk and we were in the elevator at Beacon Hill station. Once on the platform, it was a very pleasant temperature. A few minutes later, the air conditioned train stopped and we made our way to the Pioneer Square station and then up, out of the 3rd & Yesler entrance. Downhill and around the corner of the Smith Tower and we were at the comfortably cool Collins Pub. (I had a burger, impulsively with Field Roast instead of beef, with fries and tartar sauce. The burger was good, and the fries great. Wendi had a polenta dish with zucchini, broccoli, and a rustic tomato sauce. The polenta was good. The tomato sauce was a bit acid-y, and the broccoli was a surprise — Wendi hates broccoli. Luckily, I love it. Collins Pub offers a good selection of interesting craft beers. I had a pint of 21st Amendment‘s “Hell or High Watermelon Wheat” — surprisingly tasty and refreshing — and one of Ninkasi‘s “Radiant Summer Pale”, which grew on me the lower it got in the glass.)
What we’d like to know is: Where are you going and what are you doing to beat the heat?
That will teach me to say “a dusting” of snow
OK, so it’s not a dusting. It is snowing pretty hard out there now. We now have more than 1.5 inches of snow here on North Beacon. Drive carefully, folks.
Seattle Schools on two-hour delay today
The dusting of snow we’ve gotten has made the streets slick enough for Seattle Public Schools to run two hours late today. Buses are on their snow routes, there is no door-to-door service, no breakfast service, no Head Start, and no half-day kindergarten. (Full-day kindergarteners will have the two-hour delay.) Most private schools in town seem to be two hours late as well. See schoolreport.org for details.
Seattle Schools 2 hours late today
The announcement just went up on the Seattle School District website:
“All Seattle Public Schools will start two hours late today and buses will operate on snow routes.
“Due to weather concerns, all schools will start two hours late today. Buses will operate on snow routes. There will be no door-to-door service, no Head Start and pre-school, and no half day a.m. kindergarten or half day p.m. kindergarten. Full day kindergarten classes will be in session with a two-hour start delay. There will no before school breakfast service available.”
We aren’t hearing about any Metro delays on Beacon Hill yet, but things are apparently dicey for the 3 and 4 on Queen Anne at the moment. Allow yourself lots of time for today’s commute just in case.
It’s baaaaaaaack
It’s snowing! But it’s awfully wet snow, and the high temperature today is supposed to be 43, so it should be gone quickly. No sign so far of any school closures in this area. Some other districts are opening late, however, so keep your eyes on schoolreport.org for local school announcements.
Here’s what it looked like on North Beacon Hill around 4:30 am this morning. All photos by me, in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr:
Tell the mayor what you really think
A lot of Seattleites have some, um, strong opinions about the way things went in this city during our recent “snow event.” If you’re one of them, Mayor Nickels wants to talk to you! The mayor is inviting city residents to talk about their winter storm experiences with him, and with department heads and city staff, as part of a citywide performance review of emergency snow operations.
Three meetings are planned, but none in Southeast Seattle; one’s in the Central District, though, so it’s not too far away:
- Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Green Lake Community Center, 7201 East Green Lake Drive North
- Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Garfield Community Center, 2323 East Cherry Street
- Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Southwest Community Center, 2801 Southwest Thistle Street
At the meetings, we’re told you’ll be able to talk one-on-one with the mayor, and also meet with staff from transportation, utilities and other departments.
The good and the bad
Snowmageddon noon-hour video review
Below are time-lapse movies of the south end of the Stevens Place triangle park, squeezed down to about a minute per hour, taken during the hour between 12:00pm and 1:00pm each day from December 13th through December 28th.
It’s interesting to watch the evolution of the snow. It starts so innocently. (Click the “More” link for following two weeks of video.)
It’s melting!
Now that we are able to leave the Hill without fearing for our lives on icy roads, however, it seems like a good time to look back at the last couple of weeks and talk about how it went. What did you think of the city’s handling of the snow and ice? How about Metro? Did you have to make extreme changes to your holiday plans? Did you enjoy the snow? Did you hate it? Tell us what you think, please.
Continue reading It’s melting!