Give that girl a Snickers and some Midol

La Nina is here and she is in a particularly bad mood, in case you haven't noticed. We here in the Portland Metro area have endured a lot of unusual weather and I can't say we've endured it gracefully. I think we've endured it worse than we typically would, actually.  Let me explain why I think this is so.

Our microclimate, I guess you'd call it, is affected by a lot of other microclimates. We have the Columbia River Gorge creating it's own set of circumstances, we have the coast trying to push its weather through but then it hits the coast range and the two climates meet. Then we have the valley climate. And the foothill climate. And one of these is going to win, but most times it's difficult to tell which one that will be.

Which leads to the average Portlander not believing there will be snow or ice because it rarely ever happens as the forecasters predict. Actually, in my experience, the worst time (or best times if you are a real snow lover) are the times that catch the forecasters off guard.

So, here's what happened. The first round of unpleasantness rolled in exactly as scheduled. We were taken by surprise because that is a rarity here. Portland was log jammed. It was horrible for everyone. Wrecked cars, children on buses until midnight; some kept at school overnight. Plows were stuck in those traffic jams, as were the gravel trucks. Portland experienced a lot of anger.

Seriously, around here, when the first snowflakes fall, people know it's time to get home. So they all headed out at once. They don't stay with their cars. They abandon them when they can't go any further. Just trust me when I tell you that it is a mess. We hit national news because of our unpreparedness. 

Enter storm number two. Yes, we got a second major for us event. Everything came crashing to a halt. And made news. It made news because once again, it caught us off guard. I know--right on schedule.  But to be fair, it hit a little early. Panic. We can't help it. We know we are in trouble.

But it wasn't over. Before event number two--or maybe it was already event number three (this is how messy it's been this winter)--was even over, out came word that the next event was going to hit us. And they couldn't tell what direction it was going to take. It looked like ice. Wednesday, they said. 

Hello Tuesday. The snow began to fall fast and heavy. And it started earlier than expected. They told us that it would likely turn to ice again within about two hours. But it continued to dump snow. It dumped and dumped and dumped. Even NWS Portland kind of gave up trying to figure out what was going to come down. (Whoever is in charge of their Twitter account has a grand sense of humor.)

 

My house ended the drama with 8 inches of snow. Friends of mine ended with 13 inches. We shut down. There is no going anywhere when these events are so rare that your government entities don't stock a huge fleet of plows.

There is no denying the beauty of the fresh snow. There is no denying the great enjoyment of a true snow day. There is no denying the exhaustion that comes at the end when the kids go to bed and and sleep 13 or 14 hours.

There is no denying that it's nice to be at the end of it.

So, my conclusion is that La Nina is in an extremely bad mood this year. She needs some Midol and a Snickers.