OREGON AT A STANDSTILL

As I sit here in Hillsboro, Western Oregon is weathering an onslaught of snow, sleet, winds gusting above 40 mph and temperatures, before chill factor adjustment, barely cracking 25 degrees. All schools have shut down, most roads require traction devices, Interstate 5 has been completely shut down between Cottage Grove and Roseburg to the south, and portions of Highway 101 on the coast have been closed completely! This follows on the heels of a far more mild storm that passed through on New Year's Day and shut everything down.

The Great Storm of 2004!

This is a photo of Marquam Bridge over the Willamette River in Portland looking east from downtown. All of the eastside is invisible from the snow. (From www.katu.com) I hope to have my own photos posted on here in good time.

Temperatures were well below freezing all day yesterday, but last night a major storm system moved onshore from the southwest and the result has been snow all night. The accumulation was originally predicted to be 6"-10" in the Portland metro area, but I think that's a stretch. They didn't factor in the fact that the colder the air temperature, the smaller the snow flake. And indeed, all the snow on the ground this morning is small and powdery. I would guess that here in Hillsboro, we've gotten no more than 3"-4". Though I do notice that the flakes are getting gradually larger and the dusting flurries have picked up again to a full-fledged snowfall.

Now mind you, both Jill and I have both seen far worse than this in our lifetimes, easily. Jill's sentence time spent in Wisconsin as a child and my Alaska upbringing leave us amused at some of the hyperbole in the media about this storm. Many a morning with far more snow and colder temperatures do I remember driving to high school in Anchorage. But the area is clearly not equipped to deal with this very unusual volume of snow removal, record-low temperatures and icy roads.

So, Jill's school district cancelled all classes today and I'm working at home because the MAX trains have been shut down due to inability to climb necessary gradients on the westside line. The alternative is a shuttle service, but I personally don't care to risk it on the roads with a bunch of ill-equipped, stoned ex-Californians - the dominant breed of driver in Oregon.

The truly frightening part, however, is the fact that this afternoon and tonight, temperatures are expected to hold below 30 while potentially vicious freezing rain moves into the area. Forecasters are saying it's highly likely that at least a half inch of ice could accumulate, which is more than enough to take down many trees and powerlines in the region. That remains to be seen, but it has already been reported in Salem and parts further south in the Willamette Valley. (??!!)

I'll update if anything else interesting happens - if I still have phone connection as the day goes on.. there's big trees around here next to the telephone wires.