The Biggest November Snowstorm in Washington State History Dumped an Absurd Amount of Snow

Washington State is the most northwestern part of the United States. The state of Washington is widely known for its rainy seasons which hits the hardest during December through February. Due to the colder temperatures, the rain turns into snow. Per the Western Regional Climate Center, “the average winter season snowfall [at the Cascade Mountains area] ranges from fifty to seventy-five inches in lower elevations and gradually increasing with elevation between four hundred to six hundred inches of snow at 4,000 to 5,500 feet.” However, most areas range from ten to thirty inches of snowfall.

Washington state doesn’t get much snow in November as it rains much more during that season. However, snowfall can start as early as October in Washington. Keep on reading to see what was the biggest November snowstorm in Washington state.

What Was The Biggest November Snowstorm In Washington State?

The biggest November snowstorm in Washington State happened in November 2006. A late November snowstorm covered the Washington highways with over two feet of snow and ice. The storm gave plenty of rain at the end of the storm. It concluded a historically rainy season at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. NBCNews reported that the airport received 15.26 inches of rain. It was 0.07 inches short of the December 1933 record downtown Seattle recorded with 15.33 inches of precipitation.

The roads in Everette and Seattle were in terrible conditions as cars slid off the 405 Interstate. Over the weekend, the heaviest snowfall took place in Northwest Washington. More than a foot of snow hit Ferndale by Monday morning. Later that day, low-pressure systems had moved over Island, Snohomish, and Skagit counties. Then an arctic front pushed more snow into the King and Seattle Counties.

Over forty thousand citizens in Snohomish County power got knocked out. The rural parts of Skagit County measured twenty-four inches of snowfall. Their football team, The Seattle Seahawks had to play against the Green Bay Packers during the snowstorm. In Southwestern Washington, there was a fourteen-car pileup on Interstate 5 with no fatalities fortunately enough.