The Pineapple Express to our rescue

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For the past few days Oregon has been hammered by the weather. Fortunately for me, the cold stuff has stayed just north of here.
I am feeling really guilty about this since I prayed it wouldn't affect us locally, thus preventing me from getting to work. OK, I wasn't really losing sleep over my guilt
The cold came, then the snow, and yesterday and today it changed to freezing rain knocking down trees and power lines. Roads inland have been so bad, the State Police alone have responded to over 600 crashes so far. Fortunately most were not serious. Looking at Oregon's road cams, it was quite noticeable that people listened and stayed off the roads today. Even Interstate 5, our north south freeway was void of traffic. Seemed like much of the traffic was semi trucks. Those guys seem have better smarts when driving in this kind of weather.
The good news is the infamous Pineapple Express has arrived here on the coast, and will be heading inland overnight and flushing out the unusually cold weather.
The Pineapple Express is when an offshore southern storm pattern swirls upward from around Hawaii spins northward and onto our coast, bringing both warmer that usual weather and rain. We got close to 60 today, it jumped from near 50 up to 60 relatively fast, and at the same time, the wind rose up with it and hasn't stopped. Not gale force, just steady wind. The graph is from my neighbors weather station.

You guys with the super cold weather......... how do you guys survive this kind of weather? Not just the temperature, but the roads.
People over here don't fare very well when the roads ice up and get snow on them. I suppose we have too many hills here, and probably not enough highway equipment.

 

[Floorist]

We drive on ice and snow several times every winter. Both can stay on the ground for days. We just get where we don't pay much attention.

 

[highup]

We drive on ice and snow several times every winter. Both can stay on the ground for days. We just get where we don't pay much attention.

A twist on your words ....not paying attention is why we don't get there.

 

[DarisMulkin]

When the roads get snow covered and icy we just slow down to 90 mph instead of 100 mph. That's the way most of the idiots do it.
Me I slow to whatever I think is a safe speed and leave a lot of room between me and the guy in front of me. I'm always thinking what I am going to do if all of a sudden I loose it and where to go. The biggest trick is not to hit the brakes really hard and to get the car into neutral taking the drive off the wheels. No drive on the wheels then you got control. Never have the cruise on in wet or slippery conditions.
4 wheel drives only put you deeper in the ditch.

Daris

 

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Here's the current map of the western/central part of the state. The white squares with red are all warnings of road condition issues. Usually these are accidents, but the warnings include debris in the road. All of these are vegetation and trees on the roadway, and or downed power lines from the freezing rain.

Western map http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.asp?curRegion=4

The next map area directly north has a lot of blue dots which indicate snow, ice and winter driving hazards. Those blue dots are normally seen 50 miles or more east of Interstate 5 which is in the middle of the frame. 50 miles east are the Cascade Mountains. Pretty nasty conditions for those people up north. I guess even gas stations have run out of fuel because the trucks can't get there on schedule.
This will begin to end tomorrow as the temperatures rise and the normal rain reappears.

Northwestern map http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.asp?curRegion=1

 

[Floorist]

Best thing to do is, crawl back in bed and pull the covers over your head, until spring.

 

[highup]

Best thing to do is, crawl back in bed and pull the covers over your head, until spring.

Naw, the front is already beginning to helping out those inland valley areas that were on the Oregon travel map. The nicer weather is coming fast. I saved a few images from the road cams for the fun of it.