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The Garden Party

How's the weather in the PNW?

17 years ago

Has everyone made it OK through the storms? The news made it sound very bad.

I certainly hope that everyone is safe and sound. Cold is cold, but cold with no electricty is something that I don't want to have to deal with.

Aggie

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Comments (9)

sheila
17 years ago
We're fortunate in my little bit of the PNW - here on the Eastern tip of the Olympic Penninsula we had tremendous winds but our power outages were worse during the last big storm a couple of weeks ago. Even then my little corner of Port Townsend somehow had only about five hours down, although people a mile away were out for days. Over on the west side of the Penninsula where they're wide open to the Pacific it's been very bad.

Since I live on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and I'm only about 200 ft from the water the high wind warnings concerned me yesterday - the Strait was a heaving mass of huge swells and high waves breaking both far out and close in. I felt seasick just watching it. Some of the gusts apparently hit 60 mph. But it calmed down by afternoon without causing too much damage. I didn't even get out to photograph it all for fear a rogue wave might get me.

On the mainland people are worse off - the power outages are everywhere and will be going on at least the whole weekend in many places. The fire department in Seattle is getting call after call for carbon monoxide poisening because people have been lighting bbq's indoors, not knowing any better. One family has died.

I have electric heat but come next Spring I'm going to put in a small propane stove so that I'm prepared. My dogs are good blankets but I've slept with sweeter smelling partners:)

Laura (Weebus) drives a bus in the Olympia area and I bet she's had a hair raising few days.
andie_rathbone
17 years ago
Shelia, I've been thinking about you guys out there as I've been listening to the news of the storms in the PNW. The news footage has been unbelievable about the winds you all have gotten.

I'm glad that you're OK and the lights are still on. We should be getting the after affects of your storm starting tomorrow. It will be the price we have to pay for temperatures in teh 70's this past week.
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sheila
17 years ago
That's a high price to pay isn't it, Andie?

I hope the storm has lost some of its fury by the time it gets to you.
Pidge
17 years ago
Sheila, I'm glad to hear you are alright. My sister lives in Seattle and I haven't heard how she has fared. What a terrible time you are having.
And I keep thinking of those climbers on Mount Hood. It will be a miracle if they make it through those storms.
Josh
17 years ago
I always think of the PNW as so much like England...gentle rains and mild temps. In the past few years it seems to be floods, mudslides and now the hurricane speed winds and rough seas. Is this that unusual, Sheila or did I just have a misconception of your part of the world? (Still sounds idyllic to me, though).

Andie, I always watch for your comments on TX weather...we'll get it a few days later but it's usually tempered somewhat by then.

Hope Weebus and your sister, Pidge, are just out of power and can check in soon. josh
andie_rathbone
17 years ago
Unfortunately, they've found one of the climbers dead on Mt. Hood. I don't know which one because they didn't release his name on the news. Still no news on the other two. Two of them are from Dallas, so we've been following the story pretty closely in this part of the country.
sheila
17 years ago
We're very saddened here in Washington State by the death of that climber. It's an ongoing heroic effort to find the others, hopefully alive.

Josh, our winters in the Western part of the state are generally pretty benign but we do get wind storms in the winter and it rains in Seattle a good deal more than it does in the the UK. My town, Port Townsend, is protected by the rain shadow and we only get about 18 inches a year and rather milder weather. But we are a maritime community and some nasty weather comes roaring through the Strait a couple of times each winter. And there are the mountains - we have the Cascades and the Olympics and they get very severe weather.

There are still many thousands of people without electricity on the mainland.
ell_in_or
17 years ago
All's good in Portland. We had heavy winds at our house, but then, we're used to it. We live on the east side of Portland where the wind screams down the Columbia Gorge and hits the back of our house like a freight train for most of the winter. This weather was just coming from the other direction. We didn't have any power outages but there were a few trees down in the general neighborhood. A guy at my office was out for the day as a tree had fallen onto his house. New skylight the hard way. What a mess.

This last weekend was warmish (39), and not so windy (5mph) so we went for a bike ride. Neoprene and layers!
andie_rathbone
17 years ago
It looks like Denver is getting it today. There are blizzard warnings out for the cities & the authorities are telling everyone who can to stay at home & not get out on the road.

Here we're still on the warm side of a nasty front that has brought nasty ice from Abilene to Albuquerque. I'll take the rain any day over ice.

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