A front brought heavy snow to the Mt Baker area of the North Cascades.
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.
The episode as NWS SEW wrote it up.
A front brought heavy snow to the Mt Baker area of the North Cascades.
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 Jan 31, 9:00 AM PST, 5 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
900 AM PST TUE JAN 31 2012
.SYNOPSIS...MOIST WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL PREVAIL OVER THE REGION
TODAY GIVING UNSETTLED CONDITIONS. A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE
AREA EARLY WEDNESDAY. EXPECT LOCALLY HEAVY PRECIPITATION AHEAD OF
THIS FRONT IN THE MOUNTAINS AND ON THE COAST. A DRYING TREND WILL
BEGIN ON WEDNESDAY AND PERSIST THROUGH THURSDAY AS HIGH PRESSURE
ALOFT BUILDS OVER THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
&&
.SHORT TERM...MODELS SHOW A FEW WEAK IMPULSES MOVING THROUGH THE
WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT TODAY. RADAR SHOWS SCATTERED SHOWERS WHICH
BROADLY AGREES WITH THE MODELS. ANY RAIN TODAY IS LIKELY TO BE
LIGHT...EXCEPT FOR THE COAST WHERE A MORE ORGANIZED SYSTEM WILL
ARRIVE IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS TODAY WILL BE 45-50.
FRONT ARRIVES TONIGHT ALONG WITH AN ASSOCIATED UPPER TROUGH. THIS
WILL SPREAD RAIN EVERYWHERE. THERE WILL PROBABLY BE AN INCH OR TWO
OF PRECIPITATION ALONG THE COAST AND IN THE MOUNTAINS. THE SNOW
LEVEL WILL BRIEFLY POP UP TO 4000 FEET OVER SOUTHERN AREAS THIS
EVENING BEFORE FALLING BELOW 2500 FEET WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE NORTH
CASCADES WILL REMAIN COLD THE WHOLE TIME. IT APPEARS HEAVY SNOW WILL
FALL IN THE NORTH CASCADES FROM THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY
MORNING AND A WINTER STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT THERE. ADVISORIES
ARE IN EFFECT FOR THE CENTRAL CASCADES AND OLYMPICS...WILL THINK
ABOUT EXTENDING THE WARNING TO THE CENTRAL CASCADES THIS AFTERNOON.
SHOWERS TAPER RAPIDLY WEDNESDAY AS AN UPPER RIDGE BUILDS OFFSHORE. A
PUGET SOUND CONVERGENCE ZONE IS LIKELY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. AFTER
THAT THE UPPER RIDGE APPEARS TO HOLD...WITH VARYING DEGREES OF
OFFSHORE SURFACE FLOW. THE GFS CLIPS THE COAST WITH A WEAK SYSTEM
FRIDAY BUT THIS IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN IN THE EURO. DEPENDING ON HOW
STRONG THE SURFACE FLOW IS...HIGH TEMPERATURES COULD RANGE FROM THE
40S TO WELL INTO THE 50S EACH DAY.
A LOW WIND SCENARIO WOULD NOT ONLY BE COOL. AIR STAGNATION COULD
ALSO ENTER THE PICTURE. IN THE EURO AT LEAST THE UPPER RIDGE LASTS
WELL INTO NEXT WEEK. IN A COORDINATION CALL THIS MORNING WITH AIR
POLLUTION AGENCIES THE CONSENSUS WAS TO WAIT UNTIL AT LEAST
WEDNESDAY BEFORE THINKING ABOUT ANY AIR STAGNATION ADVISORIES. BURKE
.LONG TERM...PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...AN UPPER RIDGE WILL BE THE
DOMINATING INFLUENCE OVER THE REGION DURING THIS PERIOD. THUS EXPECT
DRY WEATHER WITH NEAR NORMAL TEMPS. THE MAIN PROBLEM WILL BE
DETERMINING THE STRENGTH OF THE TEMP INVERSION...WHICH WILL IMPACT
DAYTIME TEMPS AND DETERMINE HOW MUCH /IF ANY/ MIXING WILL OCCUR.
&&
.HYDROLOGY...PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...THE SNOW LEVEL IS EXPECTED TO POP
UP BRIEFLY TO 3500 TO 4K FT OVER THE OLYMPICS AND CENTRAL CASCADES
TONIGHT AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT. EXPECT ANOTHER 1.5 TO 2.5 INCHES OF
RAIN ON THE OLYMPICS IN THE 24-HOUR PERIOD ENDING AT 4 AM PST WED.
FLOODING IS NOT EXPECTED ON THE RIVERS DRAINING OFF THE OLYMPIC
RANGE BUT THERE WILL LIKELY BE SOME SHARP RISES TONIGHT...ESPECIALLY
ON THE SKOKOMISH RIVER. THE SKOKOMISH RIVER IS FORECAST TO COME
CLOSE TO ADVISORY STAGE OR 15.5 FEET WED MORNING. OTHERWISE FLOODING
IS NOT EXPECTED THE NEXT 7 DAYS.
&&
.AVIATION...SOME PRECIP MOVING INTO THE OLYMPICS THIS MORNING...THAT
IS PROBABLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TAIL END OF THE SYSTEM MOVING INTO
B.C. BUT PRECIP WITH THE FRONTAL SYSTEM AT 130W WILL BE SPREADING NE
AND CATCHING UP TO THE REMNANTS OF THAT SYS. THE NAM HAS PRECIP OVER
THE NRN HALF OF THE WA COAST AND MOST OF THE OLYMPICS TODAY...AND
THE NORTH CASCADES AT TIMES. SCATTERED SHOWERS OR A FEW AREA OF
LIGHT RAIN MAY FALL ELSEWHERE BUT FOR MOST OF WRN WA THE RAIN WILL
PROBABLY HOLD OFF TIL TONIGHT WITH FRONT. THE FCST FOR THE MOMENT IS
RAIN LIKELY...BUT A VCSH WILL PROBABLY DO IT FOR MOST OF THE TAFS
TIL THE FRONT MOVES OVER TONIGHT. PLENTY OF CLOUDS...MVFR CIGS A
GOOD BET TO CONTINUE. THE MOUNTAINS IN GENERAL ARE
OBSCURED...ALTHOUGH ONCE AGAIN THE FIRST VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGE
SHOWS RAINIER AND THE SRN VOLCANOES STICKING OUT AND A FEW PATCHES
OF PARTIAL CLEARING OVER WRN WA. 19
KSEA...NO BIG PLANS FOR THE CURRENT TAF WHICH LOOKS GOOD.
&&
.MARINE....ONE WEAK SYSTEM IS MOVING INTO BRITISH COLUMBIA BUT THE
FRONT THAT WILL MOVE THROUGH WRN WA ARRIVES TONIGHT. FROPA IN THE
LATEST NAM IS ON A LINE THROUGH THE NORTH COAST AT 10PM AND THRU THE
I-5 CORRIDOR BY 4AM. FORECAST IS IN GOOD SHAPE...ALL I DID FOR THE
9AM FCST WAS MAKE THE FCST A BIT MORE READABLE. 19
&&
.SEW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WA...WINTER STORM WARNING FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM PST
WEDNESDAY FOR WEST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES AND PASSES ABOVE
3000 FEET.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FOR THE OLYMPICS AND
CENTRAL CASCADES ABOVE 3000 FEET.
PZ...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT FOR ALL WATERS EXCEPT
THE CENTRAL STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR ROUGH BAR CONDITIONS GRAYS HARBOR BAR.
&&
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE
FOR THE GRAPHICAL AFD...VISIT
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SEATTLE/GAFD/LATEST_WEBAFD.HTML1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
NWAC station at Mt Baker recorded 12 inches in 12 hours ending 5 am Feb 1.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, January 2012
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: 364977.