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It rained last night here in Portland & it's expected to start snowing today, so it's time for an educational thread about Winter Weather in the Rose City.
Stop saying Portlanders "can't drive in the snow." Do you know how many people live in Portland now but grew up & learned to drive in places where it snows regularly? LOTS. I know & love people from OH, MN, MI, ND, SD, MT, AK, NJ, NY, CT, NH, VT. IT SNOWS A LOT IN THOSE STATES.
It does not snow in Portland the way it does in those states, so we do not have the infrastructure to DEAL WITH the snow on the rare occasion it happens here. Only in the last couple of years did the city ordinances change to allow salting the roads (it's bad for the fish).
But why did I point out that it rained, before talking about snow? GOOD QUESTION! Because all those people who can drive in snow, who now live in Portland? THEY CANNOT DRIVE ON ICE. NO ONE CAN, BECAUSE PHYSICS IS A THING. So it rains first, then freezes & the city is an ice rink.
And because we don't have more than a few plows & road salters, and we have a LOT of miles of road, and a LOT of roads that those trucks can't fit down or aren't paved (that's another rant), we wind up with snow on top of an ice sheet.
AND THEN the snow kind of half-melts into a slush, which then re-freezes, and what people are NOW trying to drive on is basically an unmaintained backwoods dirt & gravel road, if that road were made of ice instead of dirt & rocks
Please don't try to drive in this, you overconfident midwesterners who just moved here & think we're ridiculous. I KNOW YOU CAN DRIVE IN THE SNOW, you can't drive on a fucking ice rink, and you're making it look like none of us know how to handle Weather Driving.
Because that's the thing: Those of us who grew up in western Oregon (side note: it snows a LOT on the east side of the Cascades!) know better than to try to drive in the snow. Because it's not JUST snow. It's an icy sheet of death, covered in snow. STAY HOME.
Eleanora makes another EXCELLENT point re: "ability" to drive in snow. If this is your driveway, how the fuck do you propose to get to that road (a highway) safely? https://twitter.com/Just_Eleanora/status/1359910759786901509?s=20
Portland is literally built on an inactive volcano. The hills here are no joke. The only place I've lived with steeper hills was Seattle, when I lived on Queen Anne Ave. Seattle: Another place where snow shuts down the city because YOU CANNOT DRIVE ON ICE.
Also: Your big-ass truck will not help you in the snow. The last big fuckoff storm we got, in 2018, I drove home & saw more pickups spin out and abandoned than any other vehicle. 4WD means nothing on ice, Kevin.
Also, please for the love of all things holy STOP USING SNOW CHAINS ON BARE ROADS. They don't do SHIT on ice anyway, but then they tear up the roads and we all know that PBOT has an impossible backlog of potholes already. YOU ARE MAKING THE PROBLEM WORSE, GREG.
1 p.m. update: Not a single flake yet in SE Portland, but it's hecking cold AF, so if you have handwarmers, coats, sleeping bags, blankets, or other cold-weather gear, please pass it along to the folks who are doing outreach to our unsheltered neighbors.
It doesn't snow here in any quantity. I lived for a year in Alfred, NY & totally understand why people would move here because "it doesn't snow"; don't get discouraged by the one significant snowfall we get every year or three. https://twitter.com/vinofictions/status/1359974602521255938?s=20
And oh hey look at that, someone has similar things to say re: Seattle! https://twitter.com/TheeDoctorB/status/1359973887245578241?s=20
I looked up how much equipment we have, because I was curious. 56 trucks that can be fitted with plows (which doesn't mean 56 plows, just 56 TRUCKS), 7 de-icer trucks, 6 salting trucks. When I say we don't have the infrastructure, this is what I mean. https://twitter.com/random_foo/status/1359995943769186304?s=20
Even if you are the exception that proves the rule, you are surrounded by people who are still subject to the laws of physics. And hills are still a thing.
https://twitter.com/alexandergund/status/1360012108490960896?s=20
https://twitter.com/alexandergund/status/1360012108490960896?s=20
