From Sat, Jan 6, 4:16 AM PST To Sun, Jan 7, 4:00 AM PST

Special Weather Statement issued January 6 at 4:16AM PST by NWS Seattle WA

…AFTER A RELATIVELY MILD WINTER THUS FAR, THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES OF THE SEASON JANUARY 12-15, 2024…

An active weather pattern will continue to impact the region through at least the next week as a series of strong frontal systems bring additional rounds of lowland rain and mountain snow to Western Washington. Heavy snow will slowly decrease in intensity through the Olympics and Cascades this morning as snow transitions into snow showers. After a brief break Sunday into Sunday night, prolonged heavy snow is becoming increasingly likely Monday through Thursday as a series of systems move across the Pacific Northwest. Current forecast snowfall totals of 2 to 5 feet over 2000 feet will be possible through this timeframe.

Currently, there is a 50-80% chance for 48-hour snowfall totals in excess of 30 inches over the Cascades above 2500 feet, including Stevens and Snoqualmie passes. In addition, westerly winds will increase during this time, with gusts to around 40 mph and even higher over the high Cascades Tuesday with a 65% chance for peak wind gusts over 50 mph. Anyone with travel plans over the Cascade passes and/or through the rest of the Cascades and Olympic mountains will need to be well prepared for dangerous travel conditions due to a combination of heavy and blowing snow.

The potential also exists for much colder temperatures across Western Washington by the second half of the week as a much colder airmass settles into the Pacific Northwest. Uncertainty still exists in how cold this airmass will be with disagreement in how far south high pressure penetrates out of southern Canada.

Currently, there is a 50% chance for the low temperatures to drop below 20F Thursday night through Saturday night across the lowlands. After a relatively mild start to the winter season, these temperatures will come as a drastic change to many. While the details remain unclear, it is worth monitoring the forecast for potential changes and additional information over the next several days.

For more information about current conditions and forecasts, visit http://www.weather.gov/seattle.

The 104th Congress begins, becoming the first held entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era. The previous November, Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America” gave the Republican Party the electoral boost it needed to win majority control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Source: CBS , history.com

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge in the 1990s against then President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

Senator Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, becomes the first senator to be censured when the Senate approves a censure motion against him by a vote of 20 to seven. Pickering was accused of violating congressional law by publicly revealing secret documents communicated by the president to the Senate.

During the Revolutionary War, Pickering served as General George Washington’s adjutant general and in 1791 was appointed postmaster general by President Washington. In 1795, he briefly served as Washington’s secretary of war before being appointed secretary of state in 1795. He retained his post under the administration of President John Adams but was dismissed in 1800, when Adams, a moderate Federalist, learned that he had been plotting with Alexander Hamilton to steer the United States into war with revolutionary France. Returning to Massachusetts, he was elected a U.S. senator but resigned after he was censured for revealing to the public secret foreign policy documents sent by the president to Congress. An outspoken opponent of the War of 1812, Pickering was elected as a representative from Massachusetts in 1813 and served two terms before retiring from politics

for the complete article, please go to – history.com

The Continental Congress published the “Tory Act” resolution on January 2, 1776, which describes how the colonies should handle those Americans who remain loyal to the British and King George.

The act called on colonial committees to indoctrinate those “honest and well-meaning, but uninformed people” by enlightening them as to the “origin, nature and extent of the present controversy.” The Congress remained “fully persuaded that the more our right to the enjoyment of our ancient liberties and privileges is examined, the more just and necessary our present opposition to ministerial tyranny will appear.”

However, those “unworthy Americans,” who had “taken part with our oppressors” with the aim of gathering “ignominious rewards,” were left to the relevant bodies, some ominously named “councils of safety,” to decide their fate. Congress merely offered its “opinion” that dedicated Tories “ought to be disarmed, and the more dangerous among them either kept in safe custody, or bound with sufficient sureties to their good behavior.”

The lengths Congress and lesser colonial bodies would go to in order to repress Loyalists took a darker tone later in the act. Listing examples of the “execrable barbarity with which this unhappy war has been conducted on the part of our enemies,” Congress vowed to act “whenever retaliation may be necessary” although it might prove a “disagreeable task.”

In the face of such hostility, some Loyalists chose not to remain in the American colonies. During the war, between 60,000 and 70,000 free persons and 20,000 enslaved people abandoned the rebellious 13 colonies for other destinations within the British empire. The Revolution effectively created two countries: Patriots formed the new United States, while fleeing Loyalists populated Canada.

Source: history.com , loc.gov