Holiday chaos: Looking back 40 years on Seattle’s epic Thanksgiving snowstorm and arctic blast
Scott Sistek 
Skier sloshes down a snow covered "Counterbalance" on Queen Anne Ave. N in Seattle during a huge snowstorm the week of Thanksgiving in 1985. (Photo courtesy: Eric Thomas)
While the weather is trending stormy, as usual, for Thanksgiving, it appears this year won’t hold a candle (literally) to what happened 40 Thanksgivings ago when the region experienced over a week of heavy snows and frigid temperatures that left many families scrambling to hold a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with roads in chaos and no power.
The arctic blast began 8 days before Thanksgiving that year on Nov. 20, which was a Wednesday, with a snowy appetizer of 1.6 inches at Sea-Tac Airport.
That was followed a day later by the first of two major snow storms that would slam the Puget Sound area. This first one dropped 7.8 inches of snow as even colder air arrived.
The snow stopped later that day, but the area went into the deep freeze with a low of 14 on that Friday and a high/low of 26 and *10* for that Saturday.
And what else usually happened the Saturday before Thanksgiving in the mid-1980s? The Apple Cup. It was at Husky Stadium that year but I’m sure everyone must have thought the game was somehow magically transported back to Pullman as temperatures hovered in the low 20s.
“The 20-degree temperatures froze the AstroTurf at Husky Stadium solid,” the Seattle P-I reported in a 2002 piece looking back on the game. “UW officials finally removed the snow off the turf and had to fill the stadium’s toilets with antifreeze to keep them in working order.”
Yes, the Cougars won 21-20. It would be a harbinger of another ice bowl game in Pullman some six years later…
The weather would remain dry but freezing cold for days as Thursday’s snow remain piled on the streets. Highs finally scraped above freezing on the 25th with just a dusting of new snow. But then all eyes turned to the next storm coming in at the absolute worst time…
As an arctic high remain entrenched in B.C., another storm came in over top of the cold air.
This round 2 featured another bout of heavy snows on Nov. 27 – the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Dreams of traveling anywhere were likely quashed as another 7.6 inches fell in Seattle with higher amounts in the outlying areas, according to meteorologist Dana Felton with NWS Seattle, compounding on top of the multiple of inches of snow still lingering from the week before.
Photos from Eric Thomas showed people skiing down Seattle‘s infamous “Counterbalance”. a.k.a. the steep Queen Anne Ave. North.
The snow stopped before Thanksgiving Day, but the heavy snow and lingering ice and freezing temperatures lead to widespread power outages, numbering over 100,000. The high on Thanksgiving was just 27 with a low of 21.
“Had about 20 people waiting for the turkey to cook,” said Patti Bradfield. “When we finally got our power back my uncle tossed it in the microwave (toughest turkey we had ever eaten)… but we all took it in stride.”
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Suzanne Thompson said she was her new home in Mountlake Terrace and had to run to the store to grab cranberry sauce. “When I got back home, my housemate was standing out front with his eyes wide open and said, ‘a tree just fell on the house’. I couldn’t see anything from the front, but when I walked in, it was dark not only from the power being out, but because a tree was blocking the light from the window. I looked up and a branch was sticking through the ceiling.”
“I walked home 5 miles through Rainier Valley from Harborview Hospital in tennis shoes and light coat,” said Maureen O’Reilly. “Traffic was gridlocked and no buses. Was quickly coated with snow and ice and looked like a snow witch.”
“I managed to slide into ditches TWICE during that snowstorm, and accidentally flattened one mailbox,” said Jennifer Shepherd. “Luckily only the mailbox was injured.”
“Our turkey was partially cooked when the power went out. Luckily, we had an outdoor gas grill that we finished cooking it on. It was the best turkey I ever had!” said Su Meredith who lived on Finn Hill in Kenmore. “We fired up the Franklin stove in the family room and put some potatoes on top to boil. Then we got out the backpacking stove and cooked the vegetables… The whole evening was full of newscasters telling people that if their turkey wasn’t cooked fully to throw it out. So many stories of people taking their food out to their campers to cook, or to a friend who still had power. But the storm started in the south and moved north, so some people moved their dinners multiple times as the blackouts rolled north…. It is the only (Thanksgiving) that I remember clearly, and was one of the best.”
Temperatures would remain below freezing until December 2nd when the weather pattern took a radical shift. Highs climbed to 42 degrees as 1.69 inches of RAIN fell in Seattle. Two days later on the 4th, the temperature reached 55 degrees!
Felton says the 17.5 inches of snow to fall at Sea-Tac in November remains the snowiest November at the airport and it’s not even close. (2nd place is 1955 at 6 inches). Back in 1896, some 20.5 inches fell at the Downtown Federal Building.
What’s really amazing is… it has yet to ever snow again in Seattle either on Thanksgiving or the day before since that storm 40 years ago!
Oh, yes!! I remember this lovely weather system. I had just recovered from an illness that required a hospital stay. When it was time to discharge me, there was no way my family could pick me up. The hospital kindly let me stay another day until a cousin in his snow removal truck came for me. Then I was so proud that I had a Honda Civic with front wheel drive with chains on the tires – I could go anywhere – over to Bellevue and down to Auburn yet not so fast. Loved that snowy time. Could we get another one??