Here’s Why We Didn’t Get The “Big Snow” In Tri-Cities

There was so much buildup and then - poof!  Nothing!  What happened?

Bet your kids in the Tri-Cities were jealous of the school children in Hermiston, Elgin, Irrgon, Umatilla, Pendleton and other Oregon towns who had no school Friday because of snow and ice.   We were supposed to get it.  In fact, one of our listeners posted on our Facebook: "They stole our snow!"

But before you blame the weather wizards, they actually had it pegged.  It was Mother Nature who didn't cooperate.

Seems the collision between a big slab of Arctic air coming down from Canada (maybe part of the Polar Vortex) and the jet stream of warmer, wet air was supposed to trigger anywhere from 3-5 inches of snow.

It happened, but just South of us.    Think of two sumo wrestlers slapping bellies.   The Arctic air is like a balloon.  It actually can move clouds, fronts and other weather around.  It's like a wall.   It's called High Pressure.

That ridge, or big pocket, of cold air slammed the door on the wet warm jet stream, and was strong enough to keep it from coming North.  So that's why Oregon got all the snow.  It actually re-routed the jet stream to the South.

As you can see in the picture from the National Weather Service,  the clouds and moisture are largely over Oregon, not us.  Held in check by the high pressure.  The clouds we do have are whispy and don't have enough moisture to do anything.  It caused the warmer wet air to dump snow all over Oregon.

So the weather folks were right - it was just Mother Nature to stopped the storm before it hit us.  So now, until other weather activity that's stronger than the high pressure Arctic air bullies it's way in, we're going to see several days of clear, blue, cold skies,  North winds and very chilly temps - especially at night.