It snowed on Saturday like it hadn’t in over half a century.
A staggering 8.9 inches of snow blanketed Sea-Tac Airport—the site of Seattle’s official weather-reporting station—on the first day of a long holiday weekend, making for the city’s snowiest day since Jan. 27, 1969, when 14.9 inches buried the town.
In other words, the last time it snowed this much in a single day in Seattle, man had yet to walk on the moon.
The rare, historic snowfall began coating the city in white late Friday night, when an area of low pressure swept ashore near the mouth of the Columbia River, rotating heavy bands of precipitation to the north and east. As the moisture barreled up the I-5 corridor, it collided head-on with a blast of frigid air roaring south out of the Fraser River Valley in British Columbia, unleashing a snowstorm for the ages over Puget Sound.
2.2 inches of the white stuff fell at Sea-Tac on Friday night before the clock struck midnight, with the snow continuing to pile up at a rapid clip well into Saturday morning. By the time the snow eased Saturday afternoon, a grand total of 11.1 inches had fallen—elevating February 2021 to fifth place on the list of snowiest Februarys in Seattle history. This, of course, comes just two years after the city bagged its second-snowiest February on record, when 20.2 inches fell in an eight-day span.
Saturday: Sea-Tac’s snowiest February day ever, and 6th-greatest snowfall of all time
Not only was Saturday’s snow the most in 52 years, it also tied for the sixth-largest one-day total ever observed in the history of Sea-Tac Airport, where record-keeping began in 1945.
Seattle (Sea-Tac) through today: 8.9"
That ties for 6th place for the most snow recorded in one day in Seattle since 1946! The storm total is 11.1" which puts it in 8th place for the highest 2-day snow total in Seattle. #WAwx pic.twitter.com/kY8uuknsPM
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) February 14, 2021
In addition, the 8.9 inches that fell was the most ever recorded in a single February day at the airport. When combining Sea-Tac weather records (1945-present) with records from the city’s previous reporting site in downtown Seattle (1891-1945), Saturday was the third-snowiest February day in over 100 years. Only Feb. 2, 1916 (21.5 inches and Seattle’s snowiest day in history) and Feb. 14, 1923 (11.0 inches) were snowier.
Last but not least: First sub-freezing high in 7 years
In addition to the copious amounts of snow Seattle has received since Friday night, it’s also been downright cold—frigid enough, in fact, to count as our first sub-freezing day in seven years. Saturday’s high temperature topped out at just 31 degrees, making it the first time Seattle failed to reach the freezing mark since Feb. 6, 2014 (the day after the Seahawks’ Super Bowl parade).
What a day for the record books, Seattle! Stay safe out there.
But let’s not forget about the great snowstorm of December 1990, when a foot of snow fell midday in Seattle, but only 2.5″ fell at SeaTac because of the magic of the convergence zone!
Snowiest day was Dec 18, 1990, wasn’t it?
When on earth are we going to stop using SeaTac for our records, it’s nowhere close to Seattle!
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