Relevant - Researchers forecast a hard-to-imagine West – one without snow:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/dec/26/shawn-vestal-r...
Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
81–90 of 126 posts
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Be careful not to conflate those west of the Cascades (esp. Seattle and Portland) with those on the east side (e.g. Bend, Spokane). Those who who live(d) east of the mountains handle snow just fine.
> Those who who live(d) east of the Mountains handle snow just fine. I spent most of my life in Minnesota, and even there, people think they can handle snow (which they do better than folks here in the Puget Sound region). But every year, there are huge pileups, gruesome accidents, slowdowns, etc. They, just as people east of the Cascades, have more experience, but I would stop short of saying that they 'handle it ju…
True. It only takes one bozo to mess everything up. I often see crazy folks passing as they are heading up to ski who think they are impervious to snow / ice on the roads. BTW, Minnesota was much farther east than I meant.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#83I'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.
Interestingly I feel California has gotten colder, especially southern California. It used to stay around 50-60 in winter, now we regularly go down to 30-35 lows and 35-45 highs.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#84I've dealt with snow in the PNW (including Vancouver, BC) and the region really isn't great about how to deal with it. Hell, WA and OR can barely deal with driving in the rain. If you want some humorous questions / etc. regarding snow, at the moment, check out the CHP Truckee Instagram account. 70ish miles of Highway 80 from Colfax to the Nevada state line is closed at the moment, and may be until Tuesday. All the pe…
> Hell, WA and OR can barely deal with driving in the rain.
I'm kinda surprised by this sentiment. I'm in a program in Oregon, been there for years, and drove down to Southern California. Rained the entire way. I can attest that the differences in driving in the rain are very different and definitely gets worse the more south you go. Going through the grapevine was terrifying and when I was in LA the carpool lane was just completely flooded. People always have more to improve but people in the PNW drive much safer in the rain there than most other places I've lived. People there at least know not to put on their brights in heavy traffic when it's pouring. But also I've never seen heavy flooding, especially on the highways.
As for other areas, The South is hit or miss. They get far heavier rain than the PNW but it's over a shorter period of time (though that means more flooding and so there's something to be said about what the cities could do to make things better). They do have a ton more potholes too so I'm not too surprised though. But they also have a lot less money than CA.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#85Transplants 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.
In my experience it's mostly intra-transplant complaints: transplants from the east coast and midwest are annoyed at the Californians.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#86No post body was provided.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention the limited resources municipalities have to deal with these events, since they just don't happen that often. It is more common to see 4WD vehicles abandoned in ditches because they didn't realize 4WD doesn't help with braking or going down a hill. Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it.
Research is also useful - The first key to effective snow driving is a light throttle and choosing the correct tyre. Driving in snow requires a tall tyre with a narrow section-width. This allows the tyre to cut through the crust and obtain traction on the hard surface beneath the snow (the opposite of sand tyres)... And so on. I used to teach this stuff -- https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/offroading/Driving/Snow.html
It's not so much 'choosing the correct tire' - there's a 'category of tire' and it's called a 'snow tire' and everyone in snowy areas has them, often by law.
It's like 'choosing' to slip through the snow wearing Oxford shoes, or, put on a pair of boots.
All of these comments about bad driving in the W. Coast, about 50% of this is just everyone has completely the wrong tires.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#88I'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.
Not to mention the limited resources municipalities have to deal with these events, since they just don't happen that often. It is more common to see 4WD vehicles abandoned in ditches because they didn't realize 4WD doesn't help with braking or going down a hill. Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it.
> Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it.
I'm sure your advice is a bit tongue in cheek? :D
I live on the hillier/colder/drier side of Washington where we do get some actual snow. During my kids' learning years of driving (16-18), first big snow, I find an empty/abandoned parking lot, take my kids there, do a couple of donuts and such, then throw the kid the keys, tell 'em "stay in the middleish and have fun."
They get a feel for massive understeer, sliding vs static fraction, etc this way. It makes it not a surprise later. Since they all have to learn to drive a stick (manual), we learn how to brake via downshifting too.
It all makes me feel skilled and is one of those rare moments where my teenagers actually think I have some useful wisdom to pass on still. Sadly, it earns me no credibility in any other area of their lives I'd like to peddle my wisdom to them. :)
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#89I’m an hour south, and woke up to 3-4” with more falling.
Re: Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention the limited resources municipalities have to deal with these events, since they just don't happen that often. It is more common to see 4WD vehicles abandoned in ditches because they didn't realize 4WD doesn't help with braking or going down a hill. Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it.
> Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it. I'm sure your advice is a bit tongue in cheek? :D I live on the hillier/colder/drier side of Washington where we do get some actual snow. During my kids' learning years of driving (16-18), first big snow, I find an empty/abandoned parking lot, take my kids there, do a couple of donuts and such, then…
My favorite is to pull the e-brake and have them drive the car. Basically, they will need to continuously counter steer. Works after a few minutes, and it all clicks.
Next slide will see them execute the correction on instinct.