Instead of salting out there, they pour gravel on the roads. It doesn’t help melt the snow at all, and it contributes to thousands of windshield chips every year. Studded tires are legal, and as a consequence the highways have 2 deep grooves in each lane that become hydroplane channels in even moderate rain. Oregon’s approach to snow is a disaster.
Only major arteries get plowed and sanded here at all, and up to now there’s been a “no salt” policy but I think I heard that that’s changing at least in some circumstances.
Almost no one here has chains as a matter of course because most years there’s no cause to use them. In fact one tire place around here used to sell chains with the guarantee that if you didn’t use them you could return them for a full refund in the spring. Don’t know if they still have that policy.
Yeah, we live on a pretty steep hill. Was pretty crazy going down it when we had decent snow a couple years back.
I lived in a lot of states with lots of snow prior to moving to Portland and all I can say this town is a bunch of dumb fucks when it comes to snow. They are completely and utterly clueless on how to drive in anything besides wet pavement.
Plus we have a lot of hills, but mostly it’s because idiots don’t know the basics of how to drive in snow or icy conditions.
Schools were closed here for a week, which makes your experience Snowmageedon 2.0. hint: also in Oregon, further south.
My flight arrives Sunday night. I assume PDX will be operational by then.
Every place that doesn’t get much snow has horror stories about times when there was just too much snow to deal with. Three years ago we got a ton of snow here in North Carolina and no one could go anywhere by car. I live about 7 miles from work and not coming in was not an option. I had to be in by 6 am so I got up at 1am and walked in on snowshoes. I made it on time.
Oh yeah totally. And when people write about people getting crazy about snow, I’m one of them. I grew up in the south, more than a couple inches and I’m getting nervous. I got stuck at my in-laws in New Jersey over Christmas a few years back, they got 20 inches of snow overnight. Twenty inches! I didn’t even know that was possible!
Regarding your story: good grief.
I would think by then that things will be well in hand. Per the forecasts it’s supposed to be above freezing both Saturday and Sunday (not by much, but by a little more on Sunday). That plus the fact that the next couple of days are going to be sunny, causing some of the ice and snow to sublimate, should help.
We got over 20" (24" at my house, 20.3" officially at the airport) in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2000 then followed it up with a 12"+ in 2002. Was crazy and shut us down for a week.
/salute
That is awesome.
I have always lived in Michigan so have been used to snow all my life. It always impressed me how they dealt with it in the Keweenaw Peninsula where I went to school. Those guys were professionals. I was trying to remember how much snow we got those years I lived there and found this link. Snowfall Records | Alumni and Friends | Michigan Tech I was there '85 to '90 and I remember that year we had 333 inches and the horrible Nov Thanksgiving trip home in '85 when I believe 70+ inches dropped over the week. Those trips home with a car full of strangers you hooked up with off of bulletin boards to get back to the Detroit area were some of the worst trips of my life, and honestly the first time in my life I was actually truly afraid. For a while there it seemed we lost at least one student during each holiday break in a traffic fatality and I went through a very near miss head on collision at 60+ mph and a 3 times rollover ending up upside down in a ditch. Those were the times I really wish I had my own car :).
Michigan Tech!
I grew up in the Detroit suburbs and the schools almost never closed. Huge snowfall? Whatever. Roads have been cleared so get on with it. At least that’s how I remember life in grade school, listening futilely to the radio to the list of school closings.
I also remember the '85 Thanksgiving snowstorm - I was in college and was trapped in O’Hare Airport.
It may be rough on the people, but the zoo animals are enjoying the snowpocalypse! From the Oregon Zoo:
Well, maybe you should!
On a similar grade in Montreal, I once found myself on black ice, my boots having no meaningful grip, slowly sliding down but diagonally towards the street. After some Roadrunner-esque antics, I finished at the bottom, in the middle of the road in snowboard position, arms out. Luckily it was 6-ish in the morning on a saturday, no cars anywhere.
Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea…
Portland is just not used to getting more than a dusting of snow, so they don’t have the equipment to clear more than that. It hasn’t been too long ago that Washington DC was the same. The nations capital used to shut down with a couple inches of snow.
How is Portland looking for next weekend? My daughter is supposed to fly in there to visit friends in Eugene.
Supposed to be back to normal by midweek - around 50 and rainy - but most of the forecasts I’m seeing don’t go beyond that,
My iphone says 40 next Saturday with a snowflake on it but it’s hardly the most accurate