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Is It Snowing in Portland, Oregon?
- jhatax 5y agoWhile it might not be super accurate, this simple site captures the way people panic in the PNW when it snows. It’s not uncommon to see cars abandoned on the side of roads (SR-520 in Washington, for example). Thanks for making me smile this morning.
- vvanders 5y agoWest WA doesn't have the infrastructure to clear the roads(which makes sense given how infrequently it snows) combine that with some steep areas and it's fairly predictable what happens.
- cronix 5y agoWestern OR is the same way. Portland rarely gets snow, so we have basically no snow plows and have to just wait it out. It's also rare that the snow isn't preceded by a lot of rain, so they don't use deicer unless it's dry pavement. We don't do salt on our roads for environmental reasons either. East of the Cascades, the other 2/3 of the state, it's a completely different story.
- tzs 5y agoI don't know if this is accurate but I recall an article that said another significant difference between western WA snow and snow in the states that get seriously cold for a long time in winter is that the ground in western WA usually doesn't freeze like it does in the colder states. When snow falls in western WA, the fall at the start gets melted by the ground, and the refreezes as the following fall hits it. This results in an ice layer covered in snow. The states with frozen ground don't get that bottom layer of snow melting, giving them just ground covered by snow which is not as challenging to drive on as snow on ice. So what we get in western Washington is that when it snows it gives us a particularly annoying kind of snow for driving. Combine that with us not getting snow frequently enough to get good at snow driving even in regular snow, and driving is a mess when it snows here.
- selectodude 5y ago> When snow falls in western WA, the fall at the start gets melted by the ground, and the refreezes as the following fall hits it. This results in an ice layer covered in snow. Which is why cities that competently deal with snow begin salting immediately when it starts snowing.
- bobthepanda 5y agoDoes salt work on hilly terrain? In my experience in Seattle what I've seen a lot is the snowmelt washes salt downhill, so you generally just get back to square one.
- sizzzzlerz 5y agoAround Thanksgiving, I drove through Portland on my way up to Washington and then back to Cali. Even with the roads dry and snow-free, traffic was a frickin' nightmare. Even so, Portlanders should feel good that traffic there is still better than driving through Seattle.
- rootusrootus 5y agoAbout fifty years ago, when building out new freeways was a thing, Portland revolted and stopped building new roads. We haven't built anything meaningful since completing I205 in the 80s. But the city continues to grow. Traffic sucks because the local government has bet the future on light rail.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago> Traffic sucks because the local government has bet the future on light rail. In a place with consistent high population growth like Portland, induced demand would create congestion on 2, 3, 5, or even 10 lanes of road. Investing in modes of transport where each person requires less space is the only way to have both population growth and not look like Houston or Dallas or Atlanta.
- ndmdklsls 5y ago
- stevenbedrick 5y agoAs context for non-Portlanders, the "revolt" against additional freeways was one part of a larger effort to manage urban growth so as to avoid endless sprawl and preserve the agricultural landscape surrounding the metro area. One of the freeways that the city specifically opted out of building fifty years ago would have taken up the entire west side of the city's waterfront; because we _don't_ have a freeway running there, we instead have a beautiful park that is one of the city's gems and that provides space for music festivals, etc. right in the downtown core. Instead of strip malls and condos running all the way to the ocean in one direction and Mt. Hood in the other, the area surrounding the city is home to a whole series of vibrant agricultural industries (wine, various fruits, etc.). Like anything else, it's about tradeoffs. This series of planning decisions had a ton of downstream consequences, both positive and negative (and I'm happy to enumerate plenty of examples of either). I certainly don't enjoy the amount of traffic that has come with the city's growth --- I'm a lifelong Portlander, and have watched it happen --- but I firmly believe that more freeways would not solve the problem. Induced demand is a thing, and there is also geography to contend with. For example, one of the biggest traffic choke points is the freeway coming in to downtown from the western part of the metro area; since the 80s, there have been several major (one might even say "meaningful") projects that have widened it about as far as it is possible to go, but at this point there's literally nowhere else to put another lane. Of course, part of why it's a choke point is that after the tunnel it immediately intersects with another ill-sited freeway --- one of the last ones built before our "revolt," and one whose siting and construction caused logistical problems that the city is still dealing with, fifty years later. Anyway, it's complicated, but the local government "betting the future on light rail" is not the reason traffic has gotten as bad as it has. Population explosion, geography, and seventy-odd years of path-dependent decisions about freeway placement and urban planning are the reasons.
- Ccecil 5y agoWell...certain areas. I myself get excited when it is snowing and I get to drive. Seattle tends to lose it's mind when there is barely any snow...but as soon as you get past Issaquah people start driving like they have been in snow before. I remember one trip coming over the pass maintaining 50-60mph with a ton of snow...but as soon as I got down the hill everyone was driving 25mph on the freeway. Mostly the PNW communities inland have it together when it comes to snow. Aside from certain areas such as Tri-Cities south to Umatilla, Columbia river gorge and the mountain passes you can typically expect to at least be able to get to your destination without issues. Central Oregon (HWY97) uses what appears to be crushed lava rock on the highway...which is quite nice. From what I have seen though...the coastal areas (or any area which doesn't regularly get snow) people, cars and road crews are not prepared for what happens when it falls. I live and grew up in North Idaho...outside Spokane. Snow driving is just something you accept and learn to prepare for. If I lived in Portland though I would likely stay home. It isn't "my" driving I am worried about. It is the person who has near 0 snow driving experience, and/or in a car without proper tires and maintenance that is going to be the issues. At night you should never outdrive your headlights...in winter you should never outdrive a reasonable stopping distance. If you are not prepared or comfortable operating a vehicle in the snow...don't drive for a few hours or even days.
- danans 5y ago> I remember one trip coming over the pass maintaining 50-60mph with a ton of snow...but as soon as I got down the hill everyone was driving 25mph on the freeway Driving at 25mph in a ton of snow seems a lot more sensible than driving 50-60mph, especially if your vehicle isn't equipped with snow tires. Snow related accidents are often caused by people not slowing down.
- jeffreygoesto 5y agoUnless you are in Sweden and it's so cold that the snow feels more like concrete. It is "milled" in longitudinal direction, if I remember correctly, so that there is no flat surface but many small grooves. And they do have extreme headlamps, especially around the arctic circle. Driving on completely iced roads between trucks going 65mph can be quite an experience...
- qbasic_forever 5y agoHaving grown up in the midwest and moved to the PNW as an adult, the PNW does not manage snowfall in populated areas. This is not a fault of the people but rather the infrastructure--there just aren't enough plows, de-icing agents, etc. In Ohio for example when winter storm warnings occur there will be armies of plow drivers mobilized and removing snow almost the minute it hits. They realize the sooner you can get it off the road the easier it will be in the long run to keep everything clear. In Seattle unfortunately it will snow on the roads, stay there and get compacted, icy, hard, etc. and be much harder to remove (and much, much more dangerous to drive on especially with the hills in the city).
- steelstraw 5y agoBut is it worth having such infrastructure in the PNW? How often would it be used compared to Ohio?
- qbasic_forever 5y agoIt's not--I agree and think the PNW manages snow just fine on the whole. It's why these comments trying to blame the drivers are so silly.
- reilly3000 5y agoSpokane in eastern WA stands in contrast, where there is an average annual snowfall of 44 inches and 17 inches of rain. Seattle averages 5 inches of snow and 40 inches of rain. Hence Spokane maintains an enviable fleet of snowplowing equipment and a deep bench of citizens-plowers… Seattle has little of that sort but quite a bit of rainwater harvesting.
- redisman 5y ago0-5 days per year
- noahtallen 5y agoExactly. In the 20-21 winter, there was one meaningful snowfall which stuck for two days. The “big” road nearby got plowed maybe once, along with the interstate getting regular plowing. That’s “good enough” for most people. In the mountains in the PNW, there seems to be plenty of heavy-duty equipment for snow. But in the cities at 0 elevation, it’s just not worth the money, unless it starts snowing more frequently!
- klyrs 5y agoDuring the first 'snowpocalypse' in Seattle, I noticed that the first two or three days were utter chaos. After that, people had either wrecked their cars or learned to drive, and the roads were nice and quiet (if slippy, but I was comfortable with that -- as I recall, the city only had two plows at the time). Since then, I try to stay off the road for the first few days of snow, to avoid the perennial novices.
- williamstein 5y agoThis week with the extended cold is going to be interesting.
- hsnewman 5y agoTechnically, it snowed last night. Currently it's clear.
- geocrasher 5y agoI'm outside of Olympia WA and it snowed pretty decent (several inches) last night and this pretty well explains the feeling. Nice job :D
- bcherny 5y agoI’m currently in Ashland, and was planning to drive up to Portland today. With strong snow all along the 5 [1], I’m thinking it’s better to bunker down for a few days before doing the trip. It’s normally a 4.5 hour drive, but with snow chains and delays I could see it being closer to 10. [1] https://www.tripcheck.com/DynamicReports/Report/RoadConditions https://www.tripcheck.com/DynamicReports/Report/RoadConditio...
- geocrasher 5y agoCompletely random question: Are you from California? The reason I ask is that you said "The 5". Edit: To those who said that's a SoCal thing: I Know. I got razzed endlessly when I moved to Reno from the Palm Springs area for saying "The 395, The 80", which are the only two freeways in the region lol.
- PopAlongKid 5y agoThat would be specifically a SoCal (southern California) linguistic register. Many Californians would simply refer to I-5 (U.S. Interstate Highway 5)
- xvedejas 5y agoSacramento too, I think (and maybe other parts of the central valley)
- sizzzzlerz 5y agoIt would have to be southern Cal. We here in northern cal refer to highways as "5" or "101".
- echelon 5y agoThis is something that really grinds my gears with the movie "Baby Driver". Edgar Wright went to incredible trouble to set the film in Atlanta. It features Atlanta landmarks, culture, food, and dialect. It feels quintessentially Atlantan. Despite that effort, they're constantly referring to highways and interstates with the definite article. "The 75", "the 85", "The Buford Highway". We don't do that here, and it sounds a bit like nails on a chalkboard. It's hard to fault the film for this trivial issue, but it is amusing.
- agrocrag 5y agoThis is basically what I think of every time it snows in Portland https://youtu.be/EaksWCnHaDM https://youtu.be/EaksWCnHaDM
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThis is what I think of: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPTt6MgsOt8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPTt6MgsOt8 Skip to 1m20s to save time.
- viburnum 5y agoOverconfident Midwesterners have to learn the hard way about hills and Cascade concrete.
- thsbrown 5y agoThere should be a similar isitraininginla.com From the sounds of it Portland is to snow as L.A. is to rain. Any sign of the slightest of moisture in the air and Angelenos lose their shit and drive like dummies.
- ryantgtg 5y agoI have lived in both cities. This is accurate. In LA, I think the issue is that people drive the exact same in the rain. There are no adjustments made to speed or space for braking.
- rootusrootus 5y agoIt makes sense. The first rain after an extended dry spell can be treacherous until the oils are washed off the pavement. Once it starts raining consistently in the winter, the roads go back to normal because modern tires have great traction on wet pavement.
- ryantgtg 5y agoSure, but visibility is also impacted and is not something that improves with consistent rain. People should always adjust their driving style when it rains.
- bagacrap 5y agoI grew up somewhere with 50" of rain/year and I can tell you folks do not change their driving style there either (until it's raining much more torrentially than it ever does in LA), so this phenomenon is not unique to LA.
- rootusrootus 5y agoI've lived in the midwest, and in Portland. What many people don't get is that Portland has hills bigger than what people in the midwest would call a mountain. Also, snow in late December is relatively rare. We missed a white Christmas by one day. Only have an inch here where I'm at, but hey, take what you can get.
- gautamdivgi 5y agoChicago was a balmy 55 on Christmas Eve. It was in the lower to mid 40’s on Christmas Day. No white Christmas here. Just some rain.
- mym1990 5y agoNashville was an extremely pleasant 75, was fairly surprising!
- justinator 5y agoThat's beatnik poetry right there! [0] Chicago was a balmy 55 on Christmas Eve in the lower to mid 40’s on Christmas Day No white Christmas here Only RAIN! [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fpH1cnAPIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fpH1cnAPIM
- b9a2cab5 5y agoInterestingly I feel California has gotten colder, especially southern California. It used to stay around 50-60 in winter, now we regularly go down to 30-35 lows and 35-45 highs.
- thehappypm 5y agoAnd Boston has been perfectly seasonal, snow on Christmas Eve.
- akiselev 5y agoPeople don't get climate period. I was rather surprised to find out that my parents get a snow storm every year in late February or early March that dumps 1-3 inches of snow that takes several days to melt. They live not 40 minutes from La Jolla, a city in Southern California known for year round perfect weather. They're barely at 3,000 feet elevation and as far as I know, the snow line in the Sierra Nevada mountains, even further north, is over twice that [1]. The nearest town a few miles away and a few hundred feet lower receives no snow whatsoever so we've been completely puzzled by the phenomenon. The funny thing is, I can't find any information about it online - it seems to be a very localized phenomenon in a sparsely populated exurban neighborhood and the locals just shrug about it. [1] https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/11/899/html https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/11/899/html
- ZanyProgrammer 5y agoTransplants complaining about how they're better drivers than native PNWers gets pretty old after a very short while. Apparently winter weather driving accidents never happen anywhere else in the country.
- tjr225 5y agoIt is incredible how little self reflection people have as a whole. It is so easy to have smug self satisfaction in the misery of others for some reason.
- emerged 5y agoMost people are tongue and cheek about this type of thing. When you spend every year dealing with snow, it is just a bit wacky to see how it affects people and areas who aren’t used to it. The topic has come up plenty of times in my life and it always immediately transitions into listing the obvious reasons why it happens. But it’s an opportunity to get all territorial and worked up so we get threads like this.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tjr225 5y agoExcept that it isn’t very whacky at all. Infrastructure and climate differences aside- My assumption, as someone who grew up in the Great Lakes and now lives in the Puget sound area, is that people who do think it is whacky have little to no idea the difference in terrain between the upper Midwest/New England and here.
- cronix 5y agoYes, here's how the experts who are extremely used to snow in Iowa drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSC-HittRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSC-HittRM Minnesota, showing how it's done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYl3SNm4KHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYl3SNm4KHs
- 5y ago
- filmgirlcw 5y agoI grew up in Atlanta Georgia, a place that is notoriously bad at dealing with snow [1], and never thought I would live in a place worse at snow than Atlanta. Then, after nearly a decade in New York City (a place that has snow on lock. In Brooklyn, it’ll snow 18 inches and the sidewalks and roadways will be clear by 5am. And the city is even better!), I moved to Seattle. Seattle is worse at snow than Atlanta, something I didn’t think was possible. I avoided most of the 2019 snowpacalypse because I was in Australia (I smartly changed my flight and flew to LA early so I wasn’t stranded in the airport when the snow really hit like some of my colleagues…spending a day at Disneyland instead of worrying about making my connection to my 15-hour flight to Sydney was one of the smarter travel decisions I’ve ever made), but I was in Bellevue of all places before it really came down for a work-offsite, but it was icy and there were drifts, and it was shocking to me how poorly even the commercial areas dealt with ice and snow. I had to have my husband bring my snow boots from NYC to where I was staying 12 miles away (at The W) so that I wouldn’t break my neck walking across the street from the hotel to the venue of the off-site. I understand the lack of infrastructure, but it was again, worse than Atlanta. And Atlanta is a city that doesn’t have mountains/ski resorts nearby. Last year, it snowed a bit and they were downright negligent about clearing out the snow and ice in front of my luxury apartment building/the busy sidewalk, making it nearly impossible to even leave (even by car, let alone if you were trying to walk). A lot of that was on the building owner, but the city was equally negligent with its lack of attempts to make streets accessible by foot or by car. A girl at UW died in 2019 because the school both didn’t put out proper signage for ice and didn’t do the rational thing and try to de-ice campus. Like I said, I never thought I’d see a city handle snow worse than Atlanta. But the PNW (and Seattle especially) certainly does. [1]: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/atlanta-snow-storm-102839/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/atlanta-snow...
- waynecochran 5y agoBe careful not to conflate those west of the Cascades (esp. Seattle and Portland) with those on the east side (e.g. Bend, Spokane). Those who who live(d) east of the mountains handle snow just fine.
- 5y ago
- WalterSobchak 5y agohttps://isitsnowinginpdx.com/ https://isitsnowinginpdx.com/ The site owner doesn't enforce HTTPS for some reason but supports it at the same time.
- vb6sp6 5y agoWhy does this site need https?
- grenoire 5y agoRogue nations may want to incite chaos and panic by means of lying about the snowfall in Portland, Oregon. Duh.
- emerged 5y agoThe move to force HTTPS on literally every dopey little site on the planet is pretty annoying when you want to have a dopey little site without dealing with certificates.
- jmspring 5y agoI've dealt with snow in the PNW (including Vancouver, BC) and the region really isn't great about how to deal with it. Hell, WA and OR can barely deal with driving in the rain. If you want some humorous questions / etc. regarding snow, at the moment, check out the CHP Truckee Instagram account. 70ish miles of Highway 80 from Colfax to the Nevada state line is closed at the moment, and may be until Tuesday. All the people that "relocated" during Covid are experiencing the first real winter up there. Driving around, slow and steady is the rule. Knowing the capabilities of your vehicle (and your driving skill limits), being prepared in case you get stuck, etc. are important.
- godelski 5y ago> Hell, WA and OR can barely deal with driving in the rain. I'm kinda surprised by this sentiment. I'm in a program in Oregon, been there for years, and drove down to Southern California. Rained the entire way. I can attest that the differences in driving in the rain are very different and definitely gets worse the more south you go. Going through the grapevine was terrifying and when I was in LA the carpool lane was just completely flooded. People always have more to improve but people in the PNW drive much safer in the rain there than most other places I've lived. People there at least know not to put on their brights in heavy traffic when it's pouring. But also I've never seen heavy flooding, especially on the highways. As for other areas, The South is hit or miss. They get far heavier rain than the PNW but it's over a shorter period of time (though that means more flooding and so there's something to be said about what the cities could do to make things better). They do have a ton more potholes too so I'm not too surprised though. But they also have a lot less money than CA.
- foobiekr 5y agoOh, I don't know. At least they get practice. A friend, observing the people who relocated to Montana, suggested that a surprise snow storm in the bay area on a weekday morning would solve the housing crisis very quickly, though for time there would be a massive backlog in the morgues.
- xeromal 5y agoA thing I started doing when I lived in my first snow climate was finding an empty parking lot after the first snow of the year and really testing out my car. Accelerate to 30-40 and slam on the brakes. Take a sharp turn in both directions and find the speed you lose traction. Do a few donuts. 30-40 minutes of practice every year really helps you understand how your car will perform in the snow and you can decide if you need new snow tires, brakes, etc. You'll also be honing skills for that avoiding the inevitable bozo that tries to kill you that year.
- neom 5y agoRelevant - Researchers forecast a hard-to-imagine West – one without snow: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/dec/26/shawn-vestal-researchers-forecast-a-hard-to-imagin/t https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/dec/26/shawn-vestal-r...
- pangolinplayer 5y ago
- mgarfias 5y agoI’m an hour south, and woke up to 3-4” with more falling.
- authed 5y ago> This site is still maintained by us, it's not dead. We use a weather API, so if you're wondering why it may not match what you're seeing, check here. They probably should choose a smaller area to make this useful (for somebody).
- 19h 5y agoIt’s funny because a few days back we drove from Olympic national park back down to San Diego via Nevada just to find ourselves in an ice storm and frozen interstate (I-26 through Mt Mood); you’re legally required to have tire chains if there’s a sign saying you should use tire chains so we stayed for the night to buy some in the morning from Walmart just to find out they’re all sold out. We ended up driving through the Willamette National Forest via Eugene which is incredibly beautiful. Never knew Oregon was this beautiful, I’ll definitely explore it more soon. :-)