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Seattle Snowpocalypse Feb 8-12 2019 Megathread

Seattle Snowpocalypse Feb 8-12 2019 Megathread

Old Feb 7, 2019, 9:04 pm
  #16  
 
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Will my Flight Go?

I have a rt on Sat Feb 9 flying SAN-SEA on Delta. Flights are a 738 mainline. I'm scheduled to arrive in SEA at 10:33a and depart back to SAN at 3:19p the same day. What are the odds my outbound flight will be significantly delayed or cancelled?
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 3:47 am
  #17  
 
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Unrelated to SEA, but UW will be closed Friday beginning at 12:30PM and all day Saturday. I'm relatively new to SEA (originally from the northeast) and it's hilarious how people here handle winter weather.
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 9:25 am
  #18  
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Delta has now canceled basically every regional flight operated by CP or OO departing Seattle after 1pm today, which is roughly when the storm is predicted to start. Mainline flights are still listed as on time, so they arent quite ready to give up on those yet I guess.

AS has scattered cancellations affecting both mainline and regional, although anecdotally it seems like a smaller percentage of their operations so far and there isnt a consistent rule about what seemed to get culled. One of the cancelled flights was an oddball 7:30 PM to 3AM redeye to GSO, AS 9422 - had to be a charter of some sort, though Id love for this route to exist normally!

Not seeing any cancellations yet for Saturday, so it seems like the airlines are just as uncertain as the meteorologists about just how bad this will turn out to be...
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 9:30 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by steveman518
Unrelated to SEA, but UW will be closed Friday beginning at 12:30PM and all day Saturday. I'm relatively new to SEA (originally from the northeast) and it's hilarious how people here handle winter weather.
As a long time transplant, Ive got kind of a mixed view on it. On one hand, yes, everyone panics - the photos of grocery stores last night that looked like a plague of locusts had descended were hilarious. And people dont follow common snow courtesy - leave more stopping distance on the road, shovel your sidewalk, remove snow from your car before driving, etc.

On the other hand, the citys snow removal is legit bad - I heard a rumor there are only 32 plows for the entire Puget Sound area, which is probably as many as my small 50k person hometown in Virginia owned. And our usually-warmer weather means we get a lot more ice and sleet that causes super hazardous conditions. Combine that with the extreme hills and domed roads, and with the local reluctance to salt roads due to runoff worries (the salmon will be fine folks, youre gonna salt them before smoking them anyway!)...
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 9:44 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Bowgie
I have a rt on Sat Feb 9 flying SAN-SEA on Delta. Flights are a 738 mainline. I'm scheduled to arrive in SEA at 10:33a and depart back to SAN at 3:19p the same day. What are the odds my outbound flight will be significantly delayed or cancelled?
My guess is that no, your flights will not be ontime. The worst of the storm is supposed to occur overnight, and its likely if your flight does depart that youll arrive to an airport that is struggling to operate at all.

More to the point, absolutely nothing will be happening in Seattle. If you dont mind me asking, what are you coming up here for? If its some sort of event, it will probably be cancelled too - almost everything Im aware of happening tomorrow is postponed and most businesses have proactively closed. You may also find youre stuck at the airport if you do make it up here - most methods of transportation will likely shut down, possibly including the light rail since it mostly runs at surface level.

If you really do need to be here and plan on renting a car, may I recommend the loss damage waiver?
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 11:31 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by BenA


As a long time transplant, Ive got kind of a mixed view on it. On one hand, yes, everyone panics - the photos of grocery stores last night that looked like a plague of locusts had descended were hilarious. And people dont follow common snow courtesy - leave more stopping distance on the road, shovel your sidewalk, remove snow from your car before driving, etc.

On the other hand, the citys snow removal is legit bad - I heard a rumor there are only 32 plows for the entire Puget Sound area, which is probably as many as my small 50k person hometown in Virginia owned. And our usually-warmer weather means we get a lot more ice and sleet that causes super hazardous conditions. Combine that with the extreme hills and domed roads, and with the local reluctance to salt roads due to runoff worries (the salmon will be fine folks, youre gonna salt them before smoking them anyway!)...
Im a relatively new transplant, but this matches what Ive observed perfectly. Coming from the east coast (NYC), seeing just how bad the city is at snow removal is really stunning. I live in Cap Hill and work in Redmond and seeing how both the east and west side suffered was really something.

I was able to get out of SEA-TAC on a 6am flight today but Ive got colleagues in the airport and according to the Slack photos, security practically out the door (starts downstairs).

At at this point, for anyone who needs to fly out tonight or tomorrow for a long haul, Id consider driving to YVR and trying from there instead. I just had a colleague make that decision so he wont miss a flight to SYD.
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 12:45 pm
  #22  
 
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Any reports on how Clear manages on days like today?

I'm a Clear member, but haven't had to travel on a bad weather day. Seems to me that the 5-10min signup with 2 month free trial would be pretty popular when you are looking at a security line over an hour long.
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 1:30 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by tmschmal
Any reports on how Clear manages on days like today?

I'm a Clear member, but haven't had to travel on a bad weather day. Seems to me that the 5-10min signup with 2 month free trial would be pretty popular when you are looking at a security line over an hour long.
Indeed it is popular to sign up to skip the queue. The cost does keep enthusiasm tempered somewhat but busy security days definitely help keep clear afloat...

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30754092-post64.html gives a pretty dire picture of the situation today, but makes it sound like CLEAR is still moving smoothly.

Its not like there are extra flights this morning, so I suspect the delays are probably more staffing related than anything else.

The first flurries are falling now in North Seattle. And so it begins...
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 1:36 pm
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by BenA


More to the point, absolutely nothing will be happening in Seattle. If you dont mind me asking, what are you coming up here for? If its some sort of event, it will probably be cancelled too - almost everything Im aware of happening tomorrow is postponed and most businesses have proactively closed. You may also find youre stuck at the airport if you do make it up here - most methods of transportation will likely shut down, possibly including the light rail since it mostly runs at
surface level


Seattle is my favorite place to visit. I was going to go to the Chinese New Year Street Festival In the International District tomorrow, but I see its been rescheduled to March 2 due to weather. As it turns out, I made a rt flight booking for that date a few months ago.

My back-up plan was to take Link into downtown and park myself in Cloudburst Brewing, but now I get that Link may not operate. Im not fool enough to be driving or riding on a road. Its bad enough driving in San Diego when it merely rains.

Ill check Sound Transits website before I go to bed tonight. It shows Link trolleys operating status. Also, Delta and FlightStats. If either looks doubtful or non-operating, ill stay in bed on Saturday. No sense waking up at 5am to catch a flight thats not going or arrive at an airport from which I cant leave.

Last edited by Bowgie; Feb 8, 2019 at 2:26 pm
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 3:08 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Bowgie


Seattle is my favorite place to visit. I was going to go to the Chinese New Year Street Festival In the International District tomorrow, but I see its been rescheduled to March 2 due to weather. As it turns out, I made a rt flight booking for that date a few months ago.

My back-up plan was to take Link into downtown and park myself in Cloudburst Brewing, but now I get that Link may not operate. Im not fool enough to be driving or riding on a road. Its bad enough driving in San Diego when it merely rains.

Ill check Sound Transits website before I go to bed tonight. It shows Link trolleys operating status. Also, Delta and FlightStats. If either looks doubtful or non-operating, ill stay in bed on Saturday. No sense waking up at 5am to catch a flight thats not going or arrive at an airport from which I cant leave.
That festival is always great fun - certainly worth a visit! But yeah, it's definitely not happening tomorrow (nor is any other special event here).

The snow has started to fall and we're up to about an inch so far in north Seattle, which is slightly ahead of schedule from the latest predictions. So it's conceivable the storm could be in and out faster than expected - or it could also dump extra unexpected moisture and make things an even bigger mess. I think checking things in the morning and deciding whether to take the trip is smart. The beauty of the weather waiver is that I think you can always decide to cancel all the way up until the last minute with no penalty, so not a lot of downside to making a last minute decision tomorrow morning for you.
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 9:38 pm
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by Bowgie


Seattle is my favorite place to visit. I was going to go to the Chinese New Year Street Festival In the International District tomorrow, but I see its been rescheduled to March 2 due to weather. As it turns out, I made a rt flight booking for that date a few months ago.

My back-up plan was to take Link into downtown and park myself in Cloudburst Brewing, but now I get that Link may not operate. Im not fool enough to be driving or riding on a road. Its bad enough driving in San Diego when it merely rains.

Ill check Sound Transits website before I go to bed tonight. It shows Link trolleys operating status. Also, Delta and FlightStats. If either looks doubtful or non-operating, ill stay in bed on Saturday. No sense waking up at 5am to catch a flight thats not going or arrive at an airport from which I cant leave.

Link should be fine, it hasn't had any issues the past few days.
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Old Feb 8, 2019, 10:48 pm
  #27  
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As of this evening, the snow is a little under predictions, particularly in the city itself. Expectations were for a colossal fiasco, and the southern suburbs have gotten that (apparently up to 8 in Renton), but the city itself is at more of a 1-3 and clear roads situation. Temperatures have hovered a little higher than predicted, so a lot of moisture has hit the ground and melted immediately on impact.

The real test will be what we wake up to tomorrow; a second wave has started coming down and may add a couple inches to the total from earlier today, and if it does get colder it could turn everything into an ice skating rink.

As for the airport, its apparently right around 4 so far, so on the gentler side. There are some additional cancellations tonight, but with the slack created by the regional cancels in advance, it seems theyve mostly been able to get flights out on a 1-2 hour delay so far. That bodes well for ops tomorrow, unless things get crazy overnight...
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 1:17 am
  #28  
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2 hours makes a big difference - this evening, the second wave really picked up and is dumping a more substantial amount of snow. Were gonna wake up to a mess in the morning, from the looks of things...
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 7:47 am
  #29  
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Here on Bainbridge it is eerily quiet this morning. Probably about 4-5" where we live ( near the Sound). The problem with this snow is that it is wet and HEAVY. branches and small trees are bent over double and the continued snow fall is not helping.

Edit to add: Now that I have gone outside...the snow fall is probably 8".

Last edited by david55; Feb 9, 2019 at 9:47 am
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Old Feb 9, 2019, 9:36 am
  #30  
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Sounds like the airport was a mess overnight. Roughly 6.5 total, the second most recorded there in the last 20 years, and tons of cancellations/diversions including a ground stop for several hours.

It does seem like Link light rail is running this morning, and the airport is open and slowly getting flights in and out, but its not going to be a great travel day in general. Some regionals canceled again today, but fewer than yesterday afternoon. Lots of flights already taking a 1-3 hour delay as they try to schedule out a viable plan for ops, on both the DL and AS aside of things.

The good news is that this round of snow should be winding down, so things should improve slightly as the day wears on. The bad news is that it isnt really going to warm up, so deicing will be a continued problem and the stuff thats fallen isnt going anywhere...
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