Extreme Weather

Saturday, December 17th
7pm

Icemaggedon.  An ice storm visited Eugene starting Tuesday.  Dylan was flying in on Wednesday to visit during the break.  We had our fingers crossed he would make it.  He did, but it was a bit of an adventure for him--like the movie, "Trains, Planes and Automobiles."  He didn't do it quite in the order, however. 

Dylan was scheduled to arrive at 2:30 pm Wednesday afternoon.  There was a bit of ice on the ground and it was raining when I got up to go to work.  The rain increased through the afternoon and it was getting colder.  Dylan said they came in to Eugene and we're about 100 yards off the ground when the pilot gunned it.  They diverted the flight to Portland because of the freezing rain.  I got home around 4:30 with the potential to have to drive to Portland and pick him up.  I was not excited about that given the weather and the fact that it was snowing in Salem and Portland. After talking back and forth, he jumped on the Max with the hope of getting to Union Station in time for the 6:05 train to Eugene.  He barely made it, but showed up in Eugene about 9pm.  Disaster averted.

The ice was pretty intense.  1/4-1/2" stuck to everything.
















Thursday, December 15th
The Pass

The forecast was calling for 1-2 feet up at The Pass.  Conditions in town were spooky - trees were breaking and falling everywhere.  We got up early.  Willamette reported 12" overnight and the DOT reported 16". Despite the fact that getting up the driveway was an adventure, we decided to brave the conditions.

The trees in front of the house are feeling it.  

We got down the street to the intersection and had to wait while the crews cleared the road.

The standard route over 30th Avenue was blocked, so we turned around and went to the Franklin exit to I-5.  The Fairmount Neighborhood got it too.

We got up to the mountain about 9:30, which wasn't bad all things considered.  The strange thing was that the roads were fine as soon as we hit the freeway and there was no ice 10 miles east in Pleasant Hill.

Success! (the run)

Dylan enjoys the Oregon Pow.  They don't have that in Colorado.

It snowed about five feet last week.  There was a good 16" overnight, but it was layered.  The top layer was about 12" and below that it was a good two feet.  It was rough if you broke through that top layer.  It was also rough trying to muscle it through the flats.

Five miles east of Eugene the Filberts are frozen.

 Ice art.

Here's a slab from our garbage can.

 

It was Diane's birthday, so we celebrated when we got home. Thanks for letting us go to the mountain sweetheart.

 

Things weren't much better Friday evening. The entire block east of us starting two houses down has not had power since Wednesday night.  It's Saturday night now and they don't know when it will come back on.  The worst we had to deal with was the cable being down (no Internet).

 

That was an interesting start to the season. It seems like it's snowed up there than they got all of last year. A friend told me this is the most snow we've had this early since 2001.  

We'll probably go up again next week.  You have to get it while you can around here!