JP just mentioned below that he thinks there's over two feet of snow in his backyard.
If he's not exagerattng, that has to be the most snow in the City of Portland in years. Is this true?
Consider this an open thread to talk snow removal.
Update: Also, if my memory of Portland weather is any guide, these snowfalls are usually followed by floods. The weather warms up, it doesn't stop raining and yadda yadda yadda, the national gaurd is putting up sandbags on the waterfront. I hope I'm wrong. But that's how I usually remember these things playing out.
It’s the most we’ve had in a while. Yet my employer has decided to open for business today. All the better to make us burn off our PTO before the layoffs, I guess. I’ve got probably 10″ here on the west side of Vancouver.
The snow is a sign that we aren’t tithing enough!
I work at home.. no snow days for me!
I’ve been reading through the status updates on Facebook for all my friends and family in Portland, and it sounds like cabin fever is beginning to set in. Folks are going crazy!!!
Is this your first or 2nd Chicago winter, Cat?
Oh we’re all going stir crazy all right. I tried to get out this morning and after 45min of de-icing my car i was able to drive 1/2 a block before getting stuck in the snow.
It’s my first. And this -5 degree weather is killing me. I went to college in upstate New York, so I’m somewhat prepared for the snow and cold weather. But I’d forgotten how brutal windchill and negative temperatures can be. It’s a little rough.
If you wanted to escape the cold you could all move to North Carolina. It’s been around 70 and humid for the last two weeks.
For the record; Portland is getting bombed with snow and is nearly shut down. I can’t even get to the dollar store to get my wife’s Christmas present. It’s the most since 68 they keep saying. I have two feet in my yard. Up to three in some places, but as little as 12 inches in others. It depends on where you measure cause the wind is blowing this stuff all over. In my neighborhood there are by far more quads and snow machines than cars. I’m sure CBC’s financial numbers are decimated. I actually feel bad because there are a lot of good (though misguided) families working up there. I hope everyone out there has a merry Christmas none the less.
My first winter in IL was brutal after moving from Kent, WA in ’99 … KK and I went to a Big R farm supply store and I picked up a long down coat – then KK bought an identical one – we looked ridiculous but we were warm. The snow that fell in early December remained until mid-March as I recall.
It took 1 or 2 winters to acclimatize – now 32 degrees is t-shirt weather
… but you’ve got the wind coming off the lake – seems like it’s always 10 degrees colder there than downstate.
The ice storm Thursday night, left 1″ of ice on top of 4″ of snow and since Thursday we’ve had another 3-4″. The roof is groaning under the weight of it, but there’s nothing that can be done. I don’t have any pictures of this snow, but here’s some of the Dec. 2006 snow that dumped a foot with 3′ drifts …
View from the back door.
http://www.vjam.net/temp/snow1.jpg
The drift between the house and garage is 3′ high in places.
http://www.vjam.net/temp/snow2.jpg
Walking path cleared.
http://www.vjam.net/temp/snow3.jpg
Driveway cleared – thank God for snow-throwers – 24″ bite, about 18″ deep – still takes about an hour to clear the driveway.
http://www.vjam.net/temp/snow4.jpg
View down the lane after the village road crew cleared the snow.
http://www.vjam.net/temp/snow5.jpg
Not pictured – the road crew piled snow 12-15′ high in places down the center of the main street – that’s always the 1st order of business on a snow day – wouldn’t want any of the customers to be prevented from reaching the 3-4 bars downtown – or the funeral home (that is the down town, for the most part).
Wow. Scrupe. That’s some snow. It’s the big difference between Portland and anywhere in the Midwest. The Midwest gets two feet of snow and they have shovels and they just get rid of it. In Portland, no one’s prepared; the city’s got like two sanders, and the snow just sits there for weeks. (of course when you only average two inches of snow a year, there’s no real reason to stock up on snow chains, shovels, and salt.)
And yes, there’s nothing like below freezing temperatures, to make 20 degrees feel balmy.
It’s always funny to hear from my family who still live around the Puget Sound or my old Boeing friends … the first snowflake sighted triggers mass exodus from work – and near complete paralysis on the freeways and surface roads – I can remember 5-6 hours to drive 20 miles between Boeing Plant II (So. Seattle) and Kent – and I’d be mad, because my truck had studded snow tires front AND back and chains on the back – but for every person prepared to drive in snow there’s a dozen out there with beater cars and bald tires …
And listening to KOMO TV news – my god man – what whiners that Kathi Goertzen, Steve Pool and Dan Lewis can be – it was hard to distinguish their fear-stricken snow oriented reports from reporting an alien invasion … I half expected them to refer to snow as “the white death” or the plague …
Cat – if you don’t know – they use salt here – so if you drove a west coast car out here, you might want to have it undercoated as soon as you can if it’s not already … or just take your car through the wash often in winter to clean off the salt …
I actually don’t have a car, being the dirty hippie liberal that I am, but I do own shoes, and I always wash them off after walking through the brown slush they call snow in this city.
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You think that’s funny…down here in Southern California the local news does hours of coverage for…wait for it…RAIN! I’m not kidding. When we have more then 1/2 inch you can expect every channel to report on it for at least 3 hours a day. STORM WATCH is plastered all over the TV screens. They have people standing out on street corners where water has backed up through a storm drain, telling cars to avoid the intersection because it’s dangerous! And the freeways…forget about it. Accidents as far as the eye can see. But I digress…
About Portland, I can’t believe how much snow there is…CNN said the most in 40 years. There is a major backup at LAX of people who can’t fly into Portland or Seattle. Someone I know went to Eugene. I heard other people decided to drive. I’m supposed to be flying into PDX on x-mas eve and very worried I’ll miss my flight. Damn Portland!
Cool. Does the newsgirl wear a yellow rain slicker and red boots?
And I’ll bet your news teams gloss over earth quakes smaller than 6.0, eh? Man, those freak me out – rode a big one out south of San Jose in ’84 and that was enough to super-sensitize me to them – when the guy in the next cubicle farted, I dove under the desk …
It’s funny how we acclimatize to some things … the thunder and lightning storms here don’t bother me at all – and the tornadoes – people stand in their yard and watch them coming until they’re just 100 yards away … hey – the 2nd through 7th pictures here ( http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=ev20040420torputnam ) are the block where I live now – the 2nd and 3rd pic are the house across the street from mine – the old lady of 96 who lived there watched it all from her kitchen window – the only window in her house not to break (praise God) – she says she remembers thinking while looking at her garage “there goes my garage – and my car” – but the tornado dropped the car over the foundation as soon as it picked it up …
Funny that stuff don’t bother me but the quakes scare the crap out of me!
tastes like manah
Just stumbled on this website as I was doing a search.
Are you aware of the passing of Sister Edie Iverson last Friday?
I didn’t know her on a personal level – I met her several times at CBC when it was BT and also in Vancouver at CHC. Also would see her alot at BT when we worked in the children’s church back in the 1990s.
Our deepest condolences to Pastor Dick and the daughters and grandchildren.