Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Washington, February 28, 2007

Name: Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Washington, February 28, 2007
Start: 2007-02-28T14:00
End: 2007-02-28T23:55
Location: Washington

February 28, 2007 · NWS SEW · 5 events in 5 counties and zones

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 7
Property damage: $108,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 5

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS SEW wrote it up.

A short wave trough associated with a very cold upper low brought areas of heavy snow to parts of the western Washington lowlands, including Western Whatcom County, Everett and Vicinity, Seattle/Bremerton Area, and East Puget Sound Lowlands. A Puget Sound Convergence Zone enhanced snowfall, and most of the heavy snow occurred in the Everett and Vicinity zone. Several schools had their transportation adversely affected.|As many as 60 cars and trucks were involved in a pile up west of Snoqualmie pass. Seven people were hurt, 4 seriously. The pass was closed for about 6 hours.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Seattle, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 28, 8:45 AM PST, 5 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 28, 8:45 AM PST, 5 hours 15 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
845 AM PST WED FEB 28 2007

.SYNOPSIS...COLD AIR ASSOCIATED WITH LOW PRESSURE ALOFT WILL
MAINTAIN SOME SHOWERS THROUGH TONIGHT. AFTER A BRIEF BREAK...ANOTHER
WEATHER SYSTEM WILL ARRIVE THURSDAY NIGHT FOLLOWED BY A WARMER AND
WETTER SYSTEM FOR FRIDAY AND SATURDAY.

&&

.SHORT TERM...SHARP UPPER TROF ALONG THE COAST TO MOVE INLAND LATER
TODAY. EARLIER CONVERGENCE ZONE UP NORTH HAS TAPERED. MORE SHOWERS
SHOWING UP ON DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR MOVING THRU SW WASHINGTON AND
INTO THE CASCADE FOOTHILLS. AIR MASS IS COLD ENOUGH FOR SOME SHOWERS
TO FALL AS SNOW IN THE LOWLANDS WITH LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATION OR
BETTER KNOWN AS GRASSY OR ROOFTOP SNOW. PRECIP SHOULD CHANGE TO ALL
RAIN BY MIDDAY AS DAYTIME TEMPS RISE INTO THE LOWER 40S. WILL LET
SNOW ADVY FOR SKAGIT AND SNOHOMISH COUNTIES TO EXPIRE.

NW FLOW ALOFT TO MAINTAIN A COOL UNSTABLE WEATHER PATTERN. ALSO
SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS ANOTHER SMALL SYSTEM OVER NORTHERN VANCOUVER
ISLAND THAT SHOULD TRACK SE INTO WESTERN WA TONIGHT. SO MORE LIMITED
SHOWERS TO LINGER INTO THU AND WITH COOL AIR MASS...THE THREAT OF
SNOW SHOWERS IN THE LOWLANDS WILL RESUME LATE TONIGHT AND THU AM.
ANY ACCUMULATION AGAIN SHOULD BE LIGHT.

A LITTLE BIT OF SHORTWAVE RIDGING THU FOR A BRIEF BREAK...YET CANNOT
TURN YOUR BACK ON COOL NW FLOW ALOFT AND SAY THE SHOWERS ARE OVER.

PROGS ARE ADVERTISING A CHANGE IN THE OVERALL WEATHER PATTERN BEFORE
THE END OF THE WEEK TO A MORE ZONAL PATTERN. SATELLITE PICTURES SHOW
A SYSTEM IN THE VICINITY OF THE DATELINE TO MOVE ONSHORE FOR WARMER
AND WETTER WEATHER FRI AND SAT. MORE ON THAT THIS AFTERNOON. BUEHNER

.LONG TERM...FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSION. GOOD RUN TO RUN CONSISTENCY
IN THE MODELS WITH AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE ALONG THE WEST COAST
BUILDING LATER SATURDAY WHILE AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH DIGS OFFSHORE.
THIS WILL PUSH THE FRONT OVER THE AREA SATURDAY INTO BRITISH
COLUMBIA ON SUNDAY. 06Z RUN A LITTLE WEAKER WITH THE RIDGING SO HAVE
GONE WITH JUST CHANCE POPS FOR SUNDAY AT THIS POINT. IF THE MODEL
TRENDS CONTINUE LOOK FOR THE PRECIPITATION TO BE TAKEN OUT OF THE
FORECAST ON SUNDAY. BREAK IN THE PRECIPITATION DOES NOT LAST LONG
WITH ANOTHER SYSTEM ON MONDAY AND THE POTENTIAL FOR ANOTHER WET
SYSTEM ON TUESDAY. FELTON

&&

.AVIATION...ONSHORE FLOW WITH SHOWERS CREEPING IN THRU THE CHEHALIS
GAP AND ACTIVITY WITH A PUGET SOUND CONVERGENCE ZONE FROM SNO-KING
LINE ENE. WHILE SNOW LEVELS ARE AROUND 1000 FT...HEAVIER SHOWERS ARE
DRAGGING THE SNOW LEVEL DOWN TO THE DECK. BRIEF GRASS ACCUMULATIONS
LESS THAN AN INCH ARE POSSIBLE...BUT NOT SO MUCH SO AT THE MAIN
TERMINALS.

INSOLATION 18Z ONWARD WILL MAKE THE ATMOSPHERE MORE CONVECTIVE WITH
ACTIVITY INCREASINGLY TIED TO TERRAIN AND CONVERGENCE ZONE. IT WILL
ALSO RESULT IN PRECIP TURNING MORE TO SHRA WITH ISOLD GRAUPEL. THE
MOISTURE IS RATHER DEEP...SO SKINNY LOW CONVECTIVE AVAILABLE
POTENTIAL ENERGY PROFILES SUPPORT SHOWERS WITH TEMPS SUPPORTING
PRECIP TYPE OF RAIN. SHOWERS ENHANCE AROUND 20Z AND AGAIN 00Z-06Z AS
SMALL SCALE SHORT WAVES MOVE IN FROM THE NW. MIXED PCPN COULD AGAIN
BECOME AN ISSUE EARLY THU MORNING...THOUGH THE MESOSCALE FORCING
APPEARS TO BE ENDING AS A WARM FRONT APPROACHES FROM THE WSW.

AT KSEA EXPECT IFR CIGS TO IMPROVE TO SCT015 BKN035 BY 20Z THAN
SCT030 BKN050 BY 22Z. SHOWERS WILL LIKELY BRING CIGS DOWN OCNLLY
DOWN TO BKN015. WINDS GENERALLY 19006-08KT WITH THE CONVERGENCE ZONE
REMAINING N. ALBRECHT

.SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
    .SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY COAST AND STRAIT.
    .SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR ROUGH BAR CONDITIONS GRAYS HARBOR BAR.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Feb 28, 8:15 AM PST, 5 hours 45 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
815 AM PST WED FEB 28 2007

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0814 AM     SNOW             4 ENE EDMONDS           47.84N 122.28W
02/28/2007  M2.5 INCH        SNOHOMISH          WA   TRAINED SPOTTER

            SNOWING 32 DEGREES

&&

Local storm report, Feb 28, 12:35 PM PST, 1 hour 25 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
1235 PM PST WED FEB 28 2007...CORRECTION

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0814 AM     SNOW             EATONVILLE              46.8N 122.27W
02/28/2007  M2.5 INCH        PIERCE             WA   TRAINED SPOTTER

            SNOWING 32 DEGREES

&&

Event by event

4 heavy snow, 1 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Everett and Vicinity

When: February 28, 2:00 PM PST to 11:00 PM PST
Where: Everett and Vicinity forecast zone
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Up to 8 inches of snow fell.

Heavy Snow, East Puget Sound Lowlands

When: February 28, 2:00 PM PST to 11:00 PM PST
Where: East Puget Sound Lowlands forecast zone
Property damage: $1,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Up to 9 inches of snow fell.

Heavy Snow, Seattle/Bremerton Area

When: February 28, 2:00 PM PST to 11:00 PM PST
Where: Seattle/Bremerton Area forecast zone
Property damage: $1,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Up to 4 inches of snow fell.

Winter Weather, West Slopes Central Cascades and Passes

When: February 28, 3:00 PM PST to 9:00 PM PST
Where: West Slopes Central Cascades and Passes forecast zone
Injuries: 0 direct, 7 indirect
Property damage: $100,000
Reported by: Newspaper

As many as 60 cars and trucks were involved in a pile up west of Snoqualmie pass. Seven people were hurt, 4 seriously. The pass was closed for about 6 hours.

Heavy Snow, Western Whatcom County

When: February 28, 6:00 PM PST to 11:55 PM PST
Where: Western Whatcom County forecast zone
Property damage: $1,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Up to 5 inches of snow fell.

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.
Winter Weather: Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Washington in 2007 Every state in 2007 This day in weather history Warnings in Washington, February 2007

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 16539, 16541, 16542, 16826, 16540.