Winter Has Finally Arrived: The Pacific Northwest Storms of January 2012

After months of clear, not so cold weather, winter finally arrived this week. High winds, snow and then, very unfortunately rain and flooding to those in the Willamette Valley. Here in La Pine things are fine. We are supposed to have some high winds and more snow, but so far it hasn't been anything out of the usual. We still have our roof covered with a tarp though, and are hoping that the tarp will do its job until the weather clears enough for the repair work to get done.

On Wednesday, we got 18" of snow in our yard, in about 10 hours. 

Our family in Olympia, Washington were thrilled with all the snow that they got, which was close to 2 feet.  Their power has been out for several days now though, and it is still really cold there.  Tree limbs sound like gunshots as they pop and fall off.

Friends and family in the valley were dealing with flooding as the 5" of rain that followed the snow melted the snow and caused disaster.  Oregon has even been on national news, which rarely happens.  The small towns of Marcola, Turner and Scio were evacuated, as were many other individual families.  It was once again very interesting to see how helpful that Facebook was for communication.

This woman captured the flooding of Mapleton and Cushing as they attempted to go to the coast and check on their vacation home.  She did a fantastic job, if you want to check it out:

We are supposed to get more winter storm activity, but we have been given a break.  Much of what they have predicted hasn't come to pass for us here in Central Oregon, and I can say that I am pretty happy about that!  I sure do feel bad for all of those who have lost family members or have property damage due to this winter's storms. 

Here is another flood video featuring the McKenzie, Willamette and Mohawk Rivers:

Hope you are all safe and sound on this January weekend.  Take care. 

~ Kathy M.

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