It started with predictions of Snow-pocalypse. Portland was going to get creamed with snow – mountains of it. Multiple days of snow and ice that would result in stranded people, folks without heat or power, etc. Newcasters went on and on and on about how terrible it was going to be. 4-6 inches overnight with another solid 24 hours of more snow. Then it was 2-4 inches, then day before it was 1-2 inches. Then the night began, and the snow that was supposed to start at 3pm was still unseen as I walked home from a night of free-play at Ground Kontrol around 9pm. Queue sleep and wake the next morning:
So, we did actually get snow on Thursday morning, and untouched side streets that the sun wasn’t shining on were slippery, but by 10am it was all melted anywhere you went. Still, the local news crews were out doing hard-hitting, on the scene reporting in the 1.5″ official of snow laying around on the streets despite the fact there was a palpable air of desperation in their tone as they tried to play up what was clearly no snow-pocalypse. And the snow that was supposed to fall all day and night of Thursday? Well, it’s sunny right now on Friday and there was absolutely no snow yesterday or overnight. None.
Don’t get me wrong, up in the mountain passes and some of the local hills snow can turn the steep, unsalted/un-deiced streets into a real hazard you don’t want to drive on without studded tires. And if you’d gotten ALL the normal drivers out on these roads, it probably would have been a never-ending string of pileups due to drivers unaccustomed to driving in snow (I saw 2 cars off the road on a 1/2 mile stretch of icy pavement due to folks still driving like they are on dry pavement).
All this I could forgive if it was an isolated instance. But this seems to happen any time the hint of snow is predicted for our area. So if there’s one take-away I’ve learned from Oregon weather forecasters in the last 10 years – it’s this: don’t believe them when they predict snow-pocolypses *days* in advance. Check out weather.com yourself and watch the changing predictions there up to the day it’s supposed to happen. Till then, don’t change any of your plans.