Is this typical Portland-area winter weather?

[housewolf]

Newbie-t0-Oregon question...

This is only my second winter in the Portland area (actually, Beaverton), so I'm asking... is this typical weather for this time of year? If I remember correctly, last winter we only had 2-3 small dustings of snow. This year, I'm been looking at the 10-day weather forcast for the past week, and all I see is 10 days of snow, then another 10 days of snow, then another 10 days of snow. Is this what I can expect for the rest of the winter?

Thanks

[lutherj]

1. I lived in Portland about 25 years ago. Lived there for about 10 years.

I remember snow and ice storms, the latter being more common. But they were over in about a week, and that would be it for the year. I remember one ice storm that knocked out the power for about 4 days. I hunkered down by the fireplace with a sleeping bag and read the Dostoyevsky. What you describe doesn't sound typical to me.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. Not typical

at least in my 16 years here. Early January usually brings an event of some kind, and sometimes as late as April, but most are gone after just a few days. I heard today that this is the longest sustained cold stretch here in 30 years. Sadly, Portland hardly has the infrastructure to properly deal with the lovely mess icing our streets, so be careful if you must go out.

If you don't like the weather here, wait a minute!

This famous video was shot in Portland during a past event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzeiMJQrvk

[Trajan]

3. I almost started a similar thread

MAN is it brutal out there ....

I ventured out this morning for a quick trip to the store, and was just blown back on my heels with the howling winds and swirling snowdrifts ....

YEE HAA ! ....

This is my third winter, and this is by far the worst yet .... I stopped shoveling my walks after watching snow drift back onto them within minutes ....

And now we await the freezing rain ? .... Wow ....

Still .... Portland is a great town with a wonderful character and liberal atmosphere .... Even this doesnt change my view of that ....

Let's see how the next week transpires ...

Merry Christmas ????

[Dervill Crow]

4. Not at all.

I only remember one other time that we had more a couple of inches. We had 10 inches or so of snow when I was in the 9th grade (1969). We did have a series of years where freezing rain knocked out power, but that hasn't happened in ages. Looks like it might be looming in our near future, though.

[luv_mykatz]

5. Not typical at all!

My memory is like Blue In...I was in 9th grade the last time anything of this magnitude happened. We had drifts up to about my hips in wind sheltered areas, back then. I was born and raised here, and have lived here all my life. Even the winter of '69 didn't seem as bad as it has been tonight! I checked the weather service a few minutes ago...they registered a wind gust of 66 mph! And now the freezing rain has started. Hold onto your hat. :wow:

[cascadiance]

7. I just moved here less than a month ago, and there's a drift in front of my garage up to my hips...

right now as I speak, and I've yet to get a snow shovel here either. And of course, me not knowing the area here, moved into the West Slope area near Sylvan and the mountain pass area here, which is as I'm discovering it one of the worst areas to be when these conditions happen. I'm simply not used to be locked into my house for days on end. Am hoping I can get on the MAX bus and train to the airport Wednesday night to the airport to go down south for a few days, and that my power stays on during that time so my cat doesn't freeze to death while I'm gone.

I still had an unfinalized DVDR from last year which had a flyover over San Diego showing the aftermath of the fires then that were right around where I lived and worked. I thought it fitting to add my recordings of the news reports of the snow storm to that DVDR just about a year later. Seems like one can't escape the effects of climate change wherever one moves.

[housewolf]

14. My nephew is trying to fly down to LA on Wed night too

Hope you both have an easy traveling time.

[cascadiance]

17. Hope he made it. I actually had an empty seat next to me on the plane!

There a few seats that weren't filled on my 8:00 PM flight. I wondered if some folks would have liked to have had that that got stranded at the airport. Oh well...

[quakerboy]

6. Nope

In the years Ive been here we get one small/medium storm a year(the type that would barely even be noticed in the mountain states), everything shuts down for a day, sometimes two, and then its done till next year. This is abnormal. Yay Global climate change.

[housewolf]

8. Thanks, everybody, for your replies

I hope everybody stays safe and warm and dry and well-fed. Also hope this is over REAL soon! This is way different from the mountain storms I experienced in Colorado, or the winter storms of the midwest, even New York City which can have some super-nasty winter snow storms.

Happy holidays to all everyone! Hope those who are planning to travel will be able to make it safely and easily.

[stubtoe]

9. Portland does seem to get more ice and snow hits than the rest of the Valley.

Y'all have the Gorge nearby, furiously funnelling freezing cold air in from the east.

Down where I am, it was raining yesterday. Good old, beautiful, liquid rain.

But I can't gloat. It's snowing again now!

Stay warm and safe. This too shall pass.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. news-guy just said this is the worst in 40 years.

I feel almost like I'm back home for Christmas. :)

[Trajan]

15. HEY ! ....

Where have you been Girl ?

DAMN I miss you ...

Send me an IM, and let me know how you are doing ....

Happy Holiday ! (?????)

[cascadiance]

11. Another problem I see is many local retailers REALLY suffering through this...

Since many of us aren't able to get out of the house to shop local, even if we want to (and I certainly have wanted to). That leaves shopping online, etc. for before Christmas.

With the combination of the bad economy here as well as this badly timed severe storm, its a "perfect storm" so to speak to really screw many of them here. You can tell that when they do reports from the local malls here and you don't see many people there at times, the retailers are still trying to say that "people are coming", obviously to try and encourage more people to come, but you can see in their eyes that they're hurting pretty bad.

I'm betting that post-Christmas sales will be really big here this year, with a lot of pent-up demand for shopping that wasn't satisfied before Christmas. I'd strongly encourage that after the holidays if people want to take advantage to buy in these sales, BUY LOCAL! We need to help the local retailers for the long haul. Some of the fall of business for these could be fatal to many of them I think unless we give them our business then to make up for the losses they are having now.

Exceptions to this are retailers like Les Schwabb, who probaby are getting record sales of things like tire chains, etc.

Also just hearing on the news that on many freeways and roads that are partially closed like 84, they are checking for ID to show whether they are "local" traffic before allowing people to travel through some of these areas to their homes. For people like me who just moved to the area and haven't had a chance to get a new driver's license just yet, you might want to have something else with you in case you travel out to make sure you can travel where you need to and get back home.

[LWolf]

12. And on the other side of the mountains,

My place hasn't hit 20 degrees for almost a week, despite forecasts calling for some 20s and even a few brief 30s.

The pipes are frozen solid, which is fine, since that includes the outgoing pipes. This morning I drove 15 miles round trip to take a shower at someone else's place.

The 11 degrees it is right now is the high for the day; quite a bit warmer than the -8 low.

While extreme cold isn't unusual at all, it's been colder, and lasted longer, than the norm. It's not the snow that's killing me. I just want to be able to flush.

Ever tried to dig a privy in these kinds of conditions?

Ever tried to USE one?

[housewolf]

13. Oh LWolf! I sympathize with you!

I spent several years in one of the coldest areas of Colorado in an old pole barn with no electricity, no water and only a wood-burning fireplace for heat. It would get to -20 or even colder at times in the winter. Very difficult to deal with. All of which is to say... I know what you're going through. Hope you thaw out soon!

Warn hugs to you.

[sandnsea]

16. Are you thawed out?

Frozen pipes suck. :hug:

[LWolf]

21. Got everything thawed out and working again January 3rd.

Finally.

Actually, it was all done on December 31st, but before I could reach the shower, the power went out because of all those windstorms, and didn't come back on til the 3rd. No power, no pumping water into the house from the well.

I'm STILL catching up on laundry, lol.

:hi:

[Parche]

18. hey

i live in beaverton also

no, its some of the most snow i have ever seen here
and how long its stayed
usually we have snow, and it rains the next day

this was here for a week!

back in 1979 when i was a kid
we had a major ice storm

:hi:

[oregonjen]

19. I remember that! No school all week.

Mom cooked on the wood stove because we didn't have any power. To me, it was awesome, but I'm sure to my parents, a huge pain in the neck and scary listening to the branches break. :hi:

[cascadiance]

20. I still haven't driven up the 217 into Beaverton without bad weather yet...

When I moved up here a couple of months ago, I drove up the day when you had a rain storm that was causing a lot of flooding then that they had to rescue people from, and I could barely see the road as I was driving up 217 from 5.

Then today, I thought that being after the holidays around mid-day with the roads dry, etc. that I'd try to drive down to Fry's in Wilsonville for the first time and stop by at the Washington mall for the first time on the way back. Well two hours later when I was driving back, it was a heavy snow storm again tonight...

One of these days, I'll be able to drive that stretch and enjoy the view and see the roads, etc. I'm driving on so that I don't have a pain in the butt trying to figure out how to get back on to the freeway from the mall, etc. Maybe next month? Maybe March?

[bkkyosemite]

22. Nope.