Winter On The Way

Well...we've got to get through the rest of summer and all of autumn first, but in the meantime here's a pic of a leaky irrigation pipe next to a wire fence. From last December, taken just outside of Lyons, OR.

Setting Sun Over The Coast Range

Last Monday evening the 22nd of March just after 7 p.m. PST as the sunlight is reflected off some clouds creating a dual sun illusion. Taken just off the Halsey exit on 99E.

This Moment....

.....will never pass again. Enjoy each one as it comes. Sunrise over the plant on the 7th of January.

Tumbling Cottonwood Flowers In Albany

Enjoyed a lovely Sunday morning down by the river, taking in the warming rays of the sun as well as being encircled in drifts of cottonwood flowers that certainly made their presence known. I was going to title this post Surprising Where You Find God and post a pic of The Birthday Party posing in an abandoned church around that banner, but could not find said image (just yet), so that will be the caption for the four daisies amongst the weeds.

Scattered Showers In Albany

A lovely warm-ish day today brought the threat of thunderstorms all over Oregon today, this is a shot of the Albany area today around 1:30 p.m. looking north on 99W, just south of Halsey.

Oh Joy, A Week Plus Of Wintry Weather Has Arrived

Good news for the kids and those who are able to stay at home, bad news for those who have to drive in the stuff for a living.


After being shown the videos of the snow in Portland all day Sunday, the icy wonder finally arrived in full force here in the mid-valley early Sunday evening, and with this snow lying on top of some of the melted snow and rain from earlier in the day, it certainly made for some hazardous driving conditions in this area all day long.



I actually walked to work today, a 15 minute task that presented no great obstacle. I was also wondering if we were going to be able to get our Eugene route on the road for the day.


The roads here were pretty slick, but at least they showed signs of having been worked on, down in Eugene, particularly on Coburg Road heading south and most of 99W heading north towards Junction City from the Beltline, it certainly looked as if most of the road was simply packed snow and ice. It took me about 40 plus minutes to get from Jerry's Home Improvement to the north end of Junction City in the afternoon. The Coburg route, which I undertook just before noon, was a nervy game of keeping far enough back and letting the guy in front of you work out his traction problems. I have no explanation of why Coburg Road south was so packed of snow and ice north of Cal Young Road, but on a hunch, based partly on being tired of using the curbs as bumpers to steer myself back onto the main road, I headed over to Oakway Road and found the path to downtown Eugene a bit easier to navigate.


Pearl Street wasn't too bad, but both westbound 18th and 11th streets had their moments of icy patches in the early afternoon, luckily the traffic was light enough so that give the traffic that was out the room to move fairly easily. Eastbound on the Beltline to 99W was no picnic though, and after reports of the westbound lanes of the highway being close, that traffic had barely begun to have proceeded on that path when I passed it close to 2 p.m.



I was a bit worn out by the time I had made it home, but for some reason, 99W north of Harrisburg was clear of snow and ice for substantial stretches at a time, and between Halsey and Shedd, it was possible to hit 50 mph. That all changed of course once I hit the city limits but it was still a damn sight better than crawling through Eugene traffic.


Here's the STORY about the upcoming weather prospects, and the picture above was taken earlier today shortly after 10 a.m. just south of Shedd looking west. It's not too often we get to see those hills so clearly defined.

Here Comes The Rain

Looks like the first significant weather system of the fall will roll into Oregon this weekend, giving us some needed rainfall. Let's hope the owner of this unfortunately damaged vehicle I chanced upon earlier today will find a suitable place to park to keep the temporary repairs for this sun roof in working order. This pic was taken after we had some scattered showers over the area today.

Calm After The Storm

Well, I certainly enjoyed the 60 degree December day today, as opposed to the numerous showers I took yesterday while working outside, but I knew in my mind that once again the valley for the most part was spared the worst of the latest winter storm to hit the Pacific Northwest. Checking out the newspaper pictures and television videos of the wind and water wreckage from the Oregon coast to Vernonia to Woodinville, WA still had me shaking my head. The news that a lengthy stretch of 1-5 in Washington near Chehalis, under 10 feet of water according to ABC News, had been closed added to the road congestion woes that included the highways leading to the coasts as well as the various sections of U.S. 101. Good luck and godspeed to those affected by the storm, I know we got off light. :(





I-5 STORY




The photo was taken by Rob Finch of the Oregonian on 101.

Chinese Dirty Air Affects NW Weather, Study Suggests

Both the Los Angeles Times and the (Portland) Oregonian ran stories today about the conclusion of a new study relating the increase of stormy weather to the pollutants put out by countries in the Far East such as India and China.


The study, from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that the pollutants probably significantly alter the makeup of the deep convective clouds that affect the weather here in the northwest every winter.

The Oregonian story, by Richard L. Hill, offers a view that the increasing storminess of northwest winters now may not be directly attributable to the pollution, and refer to something called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, in which the weather flips between wet/cool and dry/warm every generation or so. The Los Angelest Times article, by Robert Lee Hotz, offers some general background information and cites some examples from the west coast how the pollution may indeed be playing a large part.


The bottom line from both articles is that more studies need to be done (of course), and I am left to think that breathing in some of the crap from the dirty crowded areas in Asia is an unappealing prospect. But then again, one thinks of things such as Mount Saint Helens and how little of the ash made its way down the valley, and the poor folks who lived east of the volcano suffered the most from that. The bottom line is that this is another example of how interconnected the entire world is nowadays.



OREGONIAN STORY




LA TIMES STORY

Coastal Snow (Dang, They Got More Than We Did)

Because snow on the Oregon Coast is always a wondrous thing to behold. From the Ocean Point Inn at Cannon Beach. We barely got an inch here in the valley, and they wind up with 3 to 6 inches. Go figure. At least there wasn't much in the way of black ice this morning, and the clear afternoon dried up all of the moisture on the road. A good thing, cause it's gonna get chilly for the next couple of days.




SNOW PATROL

Colorado Avalanche

Not the hockey team, unfortunate news out of Colorado this morning tells of a 100 foot wide avalanche that swept down and forced authorities to close U.S. 40 after cars were knocked off the highway. Eight people were able to be rescued and taken to a Denver hospital, the good news so far is that there are no reported deaths so far, and according to a representative from the Colorado Department Of Transportation, If it would've happened just a couple of hours earlier, this would've been a very different situation.", referring to the fact that the avalanche occurred late in the morning.



NEWS

Car Rental Adventure Ends

Update for the car rental from the gentleman from Florida who had has car stuck in the Olympic National Park in Washington state after the fierce November weather that struck the Northwest this past November and washed out part of the only road into the area where he was at the time.


First story HERE




Reading the details between the man and Thrifty Car Rental proved to be a fair solution in a highly unusual circumstance.


UPDATE

Winter Is On The Way

Only a week or so in, a couple of major snowstorms have already hit the Denver/Colorado area so far. Luckily the weather in this area isn't normally that severe, it rarely gets to the upper extremes of either heat or cold. Lest we forget about how awful the worst winter weather can be, a reminder from Switzerland.




MORE PICS HERE

14th December 2006 Windstorm

Thousands and thousands of people all over the state, primarily on the coast and in the Willamette Valley, lost power to their homes and businesses as a fierce windstorm pounded both Washington state and Oregon Thursday night. Gusts of up to 114 mph, at Mount Hebo, were reported on the coast, while the valley numbers reached up at 80 mph, which was recorded at Salem.


Lots of people I know, mostly those who lived in Corvallis, lost power for up to a couple of hours last night, starting around 7:30 p.m. Those in Albany who reported lost power said the return for service took about half an hour, all of whom were Pacific Power customers.


Can not complain about my losses at all (primarily, my backyard fence was destroyed), and when I spent some time trying to imagine being in a hurricane.............well, I felt lucky that nothing severe really happened. No power lost here at all, some flickering lights around the time Corvallis lost its power, I got off very very light.




REPORT

Is the car here? We still have to make our money, y'know

One of the side affects of natural disasters, a road that's washed out in the recent wind and rain storms in the Olympic National Park leads to unpaid car rental charges as the man responsible for the rental has no way to get it out of the park. Surely common sense between the sides will be on display here soon.






CAR STORY

"Pineapple Express" Ends Its Run In NW Oregon

A scene just a couple of blocks away from Chez Green, caused by a lot of rain over the weekend and on through Tuesday morning caused a lot of local flooding.

It was unseasonably warm over the weekend, I should've worn shorts to the Oregon/Washington football game on Saturday (about 20 drops of rain all told, all very late in the fourth quarter, about 3:45 PST). Quite humid as well. Not as bad, IMO, as the 96 floods, as we didn't have any snow or ice to melt away before the arrival of the PE, but the constant, heavy rain was certainly worrisome for people living near bodies of water.

Time-lapse of Aurora Borealis

These can be seen this far south from five to ten times a year, I would dearly love to view this spectacle at some point.





AURORA

Storm chasing in the midwest

Some spectacular weather pics on this site, from people in the midwest who chase developing storms when most other people are hurrying to their shelters.








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