I guess technically, it's possible. But as I was watching the news this morning getting ready to come to work, I was met by this graphic (above...station/network shall remain nameless, but good sleuths can probably figure it out).

It got me thinking: "We're just 10 (9?) years into the century and we're already spending our 'Storm of the Century' card? What will we call the raging snowstorm that hits the East Coast in 2023? Or 2036? Is anyone really keeping track of this stuff? Isn't this like calling the movie that came out on January 2nd, 'the year's best film!'?"

Anyway, for me and most weather forecasters, the "Storm of the Century" refers to the big East Coast snowstorm of 1993. Apparently in the 20th Century, we had saved up our "Storm of the Century" moniker until closer to the end, then figured we better use it or lest the century go with just 100 years of unnamed storms.

But the storm was worthy of the name, what with snow spread from Canada to northern Florida -- as much as 4" in the Florida panhandle and 6-8" across the south. It also brought deadly tornadoes and incredible winds to Florida and Cuba -- with straight-line gusts as high as 100 mph.

This storm seems like it'll be smaller in scale -- compare the satellite image here of the storm of 1993 with the forecast model for this storm:

    Punxsutawney Phil, the infamous forecasting groundhog, saw his shadow. For the much of the eastern third of the United States,  that means six more weeks of winter.  For the Pacific Northwest, it means exactly the opposite this year!

The NOAA Climate Prediction Center's February Outlook shows a "bulls-eye" of warmer than normal weather (A stands for above average)over the Pacific Northwest; while the bulls-eye of cooler weather (B means below average...and generally more winter precipitation) is over the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and South.  The distribution of warm and cooler weather follows a typical El Niño pattern.

You may see a peak of sun this week!

The National Weather Service in Portland has issued a storm warning through 7 a.m. Monday.

You'll continue to see a lot of national news attention placed on the extremely cold weather back east.

There are two reasons for this: There's always a national news bias that favors East Coast stories, but the other reason is that it is really darn cold.

Recently, I came across this article on researching watersheds. Having lived on a river for the past seven years,  I understand the importance of stewardship in this area.  I am aware that my actions at home can directly affect the quality of the great bodies of water in the Pacific Northwest.  Each one of us knows our home address, but what about our watershed address? Earth Gauge provided the following information...

It snowed in the Portland area and beyond for the first time this season. What started in McMinnville and Wilsonville Tuesday morning had spread to Southwest Washington by Tuesday afternoon.

Ever tried surfing a five-story high wave? Some in Hawaii are getting the chance.

Thousands of spectators and surfers are flocking to Hawaii's beaches to see the biggest waves in years crash ashore.

Heavy traffic backed up for miles Monday along roads leading to Oahu's North Shore. Some of the world's most daring surfers took on the powerful and dangerous waves, which forecasters say could reach heights of 50 feet.

The surf grew so large that a few beaches on Oahu and Maui were closed because lifeguards feared inexperienced sightseers could drown, according to state officials.

"After the water comes in, it can drag you back out with it," said Eric Basta, a manager at Surf N Sea in Haleiwa. "Be mindful of how powerful the surf really is."

Now here is something you don't see every day... probably because it doesn't get this cold around here every day.

Ron and Tina Flaherty found this strange ice formation in their cat's water bowl early Tuesday morning in Port Orchard, where the temperature dropped to 10 degrees. They say there was no dripping water from above -- it was under a covered awning near their sliding glass door.

Magic? Not quite...

These are called "ice spikes". The surface of the bowl of water freezes first, sealing in the water below. As that water begins to freeze, it expands, creating higher pressure under the ice lid. Eventually, the pressure will either cause a small crack or opening in the ice where water will start to dribble out -- sort of like squeezing a tube of toothpaste.

However, as that water squeezes out to the surface, it too freezes. The pattern repeats until this refreezing process creates a spike.

Here are some more photos and a video they took.

Sure, November was pretty dog gone windy around here -- what with places like Bellingham and Oak Harbor Washington registering several consecutive hours with gusts over 50 mph during storms in the middle of last month.

Up in Attu Alaska, that would be considered a slight breeze.

A ferocious storm tore through that remote outpost on the western end of the Alaska Aleutian Islands -- a tiny speck you'll barely find on any map out in the middle of the North Pacific.

I was sent these photos from a few people, one from reader Mark Strecker whose brother is one of the lucky ones to be stationed there.  Yes, that says max wind gust of 178 mph -- that's on par with a Category 5 hurricane and more than double the peak winds of our infamous December 2006 "Hanukah Eve" windstorm.   His brother says there are 7-foot storm drifts.

A ferocious storm took aim at the Northern Oregon and southern Washington coast early Sunday morning with some reported gusts over 80 mph. Here is a collection of storm reports into the National Weather Service.

As you might imagine, the skies were dancing quite a bit with all the wind and rain, so I compiled some of the best time lapse videos of the week. Maybe find your iPod and crank up some tunes in your ear buds as you watch the days go by :)

Per usual, these are from Dr. Dale Ireland in Silverdale and the UW Atmospheric Sciences Building.

November 12: (Silverdale:) Read more »

Our resident photographer Jeff Fogg (of Issaquah) who is working at Antarctica's McMurdo Station continues to send some great photos from way down under.

This past week, the Emperor Penguins have begun to show up and boy are they beautiful. Here are some other photos:

The African mountain's white peak - made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway - is rapidly melting, researchers report.

Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.

If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said. Read more »

Maybe it's just Mother Nature getting in the Halloween spirit.

A new video making the rounds on the Internet shows a spooky looking cloud over Romania: