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Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

isitsnowinginpdx.com

41–50 of 126 posts

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#41

I've lived in the midwest, and in Portland. What many people don't get is that Portland has hills bigger than what people in the midwest would call a mountain. Also, snow in late December is relatively rare. We missed a white Christmas by one day. Only have an inch here where I'm at, but hey, take what you can get.

Chicago was a balmy 55 on Christmas Eve. It was in the lower to mid 40’s on Christmas Day. No white Christmas here. Just some rain.

Nashville was an extremely pleasant 75, was fairly surprising!

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#42
post #23
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well...certain areas. I myself get excited when it is snowing and I get to drive. Seattle tends to lose it's mind when there is barely any snow...but as soon as you get past Issaquah people start driving like they have been in snow before. I remember one trip coming over the pass maintaining 50-60mph with a ton of snow...but as soon as I got down the hill everyone was driving 25mph on the freeway. Mostly the PNW comm…

> I remember one trip coming over the pass maintaining 50-60mph with a ton of snow...but as soon as I got down the hill everyone was driving 25mph on the freeway Driving at 25mph in a ton of snow seems a lot more sensible than driving 50-60mph, especially if your vehicle isn't equipped with snow tires. Snow related accidents are often caused by people not slowing down.

There was only about .5-1" of snow at the bottom...while on the top of the pass was easily 4-6" on the road.

Agreed...drive the speed which you feel safe. The point was that to the people who don't see snow "any snow" is unsafe...meanwhile...those who drive in it regularly don't even notice.

Just like the amount of snow which shuts down most of the nation doesn't even seem to make the news when it happens here.

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#43

Transplants complaining about how they're better drivers than native PNWers gets pretty old after a very short while. Apparently winter weather driving accidents never happen anywhere else in the country.

It is incredible how little self reflection people have as a whole. It is so easy to have smug self satisfaction in the misery of others for some reason.

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#45
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your language gives you away lol. But as I edited my comment, it gave me away too. "The $freewaynumber" is almost exclusively as SoCal thing.

Interesting.. Could make for a cool Chrome extension, to analyze text on a page and show tooltips about the person that wrote it (I bet you can infer more than just where they're from!)

This gets creepy fast, but adtech would like it and are deep down that hole already.

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#46
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your language gives you away lol. But as I edited my comment, it gave me away too. "The $freewaynumber" is almost exclusively as SoCal thing.

Interesting.. Could make for a cool Chrome extension, to analyze text on a page and show tooltips about the person that wrote it (I bet you can infer more than just where they're from!)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz...

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#47

Transplants complaining about how they're better drivers than native PNWers gets pretty old after a very short while. Apparently winter weather driving accidents never happen anywhere else in the country.

Yes, here's how the experts who are extremely used to snow in Iowa drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSC-HittRM

Minnesota, showing how it's done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYl3SNm4KHs

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#48
post #4

While it might not be super accurate, this simple site captures the way people panic in the PNW when it snows. It’s not uncommon to see cars abandoned on the side of roads (SR-520 in Washington, for example). Thanks for making me smile this morning.

Having grown up in the midwest and moved to the PNW as an adult, the PNW does not manage snowfall in populated areas. This is not a fault of the people but rather the infrastructure--there just aren't enough plows, de-icing agents, etc. In Ohio for example when winter storm warnings occur there will be armies of plow drivers mobilized and removing snow almost the minute it hits. They realize the sooner you can get it…

Exactly the same situation in the UK - snow is common but rarely persistent enough to justify the infrastructure investment to deal with it. Also, having an excuse to combine moaning about the weather with moaning about our inept government is basically enough to trigger a collective national orgasm.

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#49

I've lived in the midwest, and in Portland. What many people don't get is that Portland has hills bigger than what people in the midwest would call a mountain. Also, snow in late December is relatively rare. We missed a white Christmas by one day. Only have an inch here where I'm at, but hey, take what you can get.

People don't get climate period.

I was rather surprised to find out that my parents get a snow storm every year in late February or early March that dumps 1-3 inches of snow that takes several days to melt. They live not 40 minutes from La Jolla, a city in Southern California known for year round perfect weather.

They're barely at 3,000 feet elevation and as far as I know, the snow line in the Sierra Nevada mountains, even further north, is over twice that [1]. The nearest town a few miles away and a few hundred feet lower receives no snow whatsoever so we've been completely puzzled by the phenomenon. The funny thing is, I can't find any information about it online - it seems to be a very localized phenomenon in a sparsely populated exurban neighborhood and the locals just shrug about it.

[1] https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/11/899/html

Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having grown up in the midwest and moved to the PNW as an adult, the PNW does not manage snowfall in populated areas. This is not a fault of the people but rather the infrastructure--there just aren't enough plows, de-icing agents, etc. In Ohio for example when winter storm warnings occur there will be armies of plow drivers mobilized and removing snow almost the minute it hits. They realize the sooner you can get it…

But is it worth having such infrastructure in the PNW? How often would it be used compared to Ohio?

0-5 days per year
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