Cold, White and Wonderful

This weekend there was a lot of talk about snow in the forcast in the Pacific North West. Every year we hear the same thing and every year we get the same results.

This year was no different at my house, a few flakes in the air but nothing sticking to the ground.

Generally our temperatures are right about freezing but the moisture never really hits at the right time, so we are disappointed with very cold rain. A few places near by have 100-200 feet difference and they see snow every year but not here on the valley floor.

I will never forget the winter of 2008, two months after my son Lincoln was born. The news was forcasting snow and I was expecting wet showers or freezing rain, but we were in for a surprise. The weather pattern was very much the same with the cold air coming down from Alaska and the moisture from the south. I was watching the radar with green as rain, blue as snow and purple where it was mixed or crossing over from rain to snow. The city of Salem is long from north to south and the purple line went right through the middle of it. We live on the north end so we were seeing snow, but the warmer moist air was pushing toward us as the cold mass held its ground. It was truly amazing that winter and we were basically snowed in for 10 days. We got 6 inches of snow and then a day of freezing rain which formed an inch of ice. The next day 6 more inches fell on the ice and because there was no way I could work, I stayed home with my new born son and my wife and daughter.
We did go outside and play in the snow some days. There was more snow than we knew what to do with but we made a little cave in the street. Later after the ice formed I had to get on the roof to shovel the snow off to protect the house. The 80ft tall oak trees looked amazing all white and none of them fell down as we have seen before. It was a year to remember but now whenever we hear about snow on the valley floor, the big snow flakes in the sky are nice to look at but leave me wanting more.

Here are some pictures

After a winter like this I can only hope for more because I love the way that rain turns to snow. My daughter Emma had a lot of fun

and I got to stay home with my son for the first few weeks

Hope to see some again or I may have to move to Alaska