Are you one of those people who
likes it when it snows here?
Or do you dread it?
Well, either way, there are lots of
people who love weather year round,
including our next guest, Justin Shaw.
Who is the man behind the
popular Twitter account?
K Seattle weather.
So Justin, it is so nice to meet you.
I've been following you for years.
I love how you display the weather and
all these important facts, but also a
bit of humor and I'm not the only one.
You have more than 60,000 Twitter followers.
Are you surprised that there are so many
people interested in Puget Sound weather?
I'm not too surprised.
I think originally I was probably like
when I started my Twitter account.
I was like, you know, how many ways can I
talk about 52 degrees in rain? It's all.
It rains nine months the year here and
it's studied the other three months.
What's more to what's more to say?
But I think one of the reasons why
people care so much is because,
you know, we were typically a
pretty mild climate, right?
So when we do get the extreme weather
when we get the Thunder storms and
the snow storms and all of that stuff.
It's uncommon enough that it's special,
you know, whereas in Chicago or whatever
it snows and they don't care, it's it's.
It's another day,
so I think it's that perfect
combination of it's uncommon,
but it's not totally rare like snow in
Florida, they're going to freak out,
you know.
At least here we only semi freak out.
It's a little bit right, right?
How did you get interested in weather
when I was in second grade in Redmond?
The Inauguration Day windstorm,
this massive windstorm and it
happened at the literally the exact
moment when we were supposed to
watch on TV and Class Watch Bill
Clinton being inaugurated and all
of a sudden the power goes out.
Tree limbs are following it,
it was just this chaotic environment.
It was kind of thrilling ever since
that I've I've really been hooked.
So you have you have such
vast knowledge of it.
What did you study?
Meteorology I mean?
Where did you get all this info?
You have
right? You know a lot of it is
just what knowledge I've sort of
gleaned over the years I originally
planned on being a meteorologist.
I went to the University of Washington.
I did take atmospheric sciences 101.
I did get a 4.0 so you know that,
but you know the physics and
the math was just not my thing.
But I think I've just been able
to absorb so much over the years.
You know, I was.
I would be reading the National
Weather Service forecast discussions
at night as a teenager and
there's so much online knowledge.
A big Saturday night huh?
Oh right yeah,
fun times at the Shaw house.
I know you're telling me
variable winds coming in.
And I tease, but honestly,
I'm a big weather geek myself.
I actually used to forecast the
weather in my previous market,
so I totally get it.
But Speaking of forecasting and the weather,
here it is such a weird place to try
to see what the weather is doing.
'cause there's so many
microclimates and stuff.
Speaking of climates, climate change.
Do you think that it's
affecting Seattle weather?
As you've been watching it all these years?
I definitely do.
I don't think there's any doubt
in the 80s and 90s I can remember
when we would get to 90 degrees.
It was, it was like the
biggest deal of the summer
like Seattle might have died.
The Oh my gosh and
now it's like you know,
like last summer is a great example.
When we hit 108 I mean it.
It writes it just misery. I mean
I, I put up a blanket over my window.
I mean people were doing whatever they could.
It was insane. I moved here in 2015
from a very hot climate only to
come in during a heat wave and I
thought what have I done 'cause I
didn't even have air conditioning?
Yeah, I I think it's done.
I just think it's unquestionable on war,
and I think it's also getting wetter,
and it's interesting.
I think you know our summers are getting
warmer and they're getting drier,
but then the trade off is that
we're just getting tons of rain
in the fall and winter, right?
I mean, look outside right now,
you know. I mean,
it's everything is wet and moldy
right now. Do you think we'll
get anymore snow this year?
I would be very surprised if we did not. We
did not know folks, OK,
the reason why.
It's so it's it's a La Nina year,
and in almost every La Nina Year,
Seattle does get snow in January.
Kind of the January,
February and March period.
It's I mean, it's pretty.
I don't want to say it's guaranteed
because I'll get in trouble, but.
I would be surprised if it didn't happen,
and I know you know if we
just think back to the last
couple February's you know,
February has a really big
snowy the past decade.
So I I if I had to bet I would
bet it'll be in February just
based on how things have gone.
All right, he's on the record.