Ground travel from one side of Washington State to the other requires crossing the Cascade Mountains or tracing the Columbia River along the southern state border. One may also cross the international border with Canada and back again a few hours later, but that does not avoid the obstacle created by the Cascade Mountains. A series of snow storms accompanied by record low temperatures this month in western Washington led to the closure for multiple days of all of the mountain passes into eastern Washington: three state highways and 72 miles of one interstate freeway. For a day, flooding of the Chehalis River closed I–5 in both directions south of Olympia. While it was never the case that those in the Puget Sound region were altogether unable to leave the area via ground transportation, the weather did cause virtually all freight traffic in and out of the Puget Sound region to come to a halt, leading to empty shelves in the snack aisle at the grocery store.

On the heels of the system of storms that wreaked all of that havoc came the first dry (i.e., rain‐free) weekend in Seattle since Halloween.

It’s official: With no rain today or yesterday, this weekend will go down as #Seattle’s first dry one since Halloween weekend (Oct. 30–31) — @KSeattleWeather January 9, 2021

The dry weekend has been followed by another atmospheric river that is dropping more rain into the neighborhood now. All of which describes a very ordinary hiemal experience of the weather in Seattle.

I spotted viburnum blossoms this afternoon in the front yard. They are a reminder that the snow has melted and that the cherry trees will soon promise spring. I ran out into the rain and snapped a photo. I will regret the end of the season as I do with each of them, and this corymb of pink will suit as a keepsake from the beginning of another new year.

Update December 12, 2023

New blossoms of viburnum bodnantense have appeared in our garden after a series of atmospheric rivers early this meterological winter brought record warmth and rainfall.

Update November 24, 2024

One of the strongest storms on record for the northeast Pacific Ocean struck our region this week, bringing high winds, rain, power outages, two deaths caused by falling trees, and an untold amount of property damage.

I was cleaning up the debris this morning strewn about our yard by that storm. What leaves had remained on our trees were fetched off their branches and blown thither, and the cloudy, drizzling skies as I worked were a coda to the convulsion from above that had shaken the trees to their roots.

In the midst of the scene were these blossoms, which are an oath that nature perseveres, and that it will imperishably renew.