On rainy days and windy storms...



Image from http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october112007/columbus_day_storm_101207.php

 Growing up in Oregon, there are certain legends that become so common place that we tend to overlook them as we get older. One of those being the Columbus Day Storm of 1962.

My grade school teachers would tell stories about this cyclone blowing through Portland and the massive damage it created. People would be driving down roads as powerpoles toppled, dumpsters were pushed across parking lots by massive gusts of winds.

That event was almost fifty years ago. My "storm story" involves the Floods of 96. The Willamette was two three inches from going over the sea wall down town, basements in SE were filling with the backflow of the sewers, and many places lost power as mudslides brought down powerlines across town. By no means was it a massive storm, but just a constant rain that kept piling upon itself.

We have had wind storms since and the coastal towns and and mountain streams still flood. But each prediction of end-of-days type weather around Oregon has failed to arrive. That is what I love about this city and this state. An inch of snow will cause people to abandon cars on a highway and walk home. A hail storm will draw everyone to the window to watch the pelting of cars with ice. We want sunny weather but when we have three days of weather warmer than 76 degrees, we have a heatwave and we start to complain. And we all want to see the wind blow.

And of course there is this great gloom that will hit people in about three more weeks as the sun goes into complete hiding and the rainy season comes in full force. You can tell who the natives are and who are the newcomers by who uses umbrellas and who is truly depressed by the weather...

Sigh...

This is Portland weather...sort of...kind of...sometimes...

Well, maybe...