Mud Slides

[bobm]

Here in the PNW we have seen MANY mud slides and many homes now at the bottom of the hills all over Oregon and Washington due to near record rainfall. The record for the entire month of December is 13.35" ( 1996) as recorded at the Portland International Airport. ( 16 miles from our home ) We are at 12.4" and with heavy rain with wind up to 70+ mph predicted for today and more rain for the next 3 days, we should surpass the record. The TV news has been showing a long uphill driveway leading up to a large apartment complex with ever increasing cracks expanding. Yesterday , the crack was at 12" and the saturated soil just below the apartment buildings showing much more movement downhill. So, Portland has issued mandatory evacuation of 2 of the buildings and 200 people have untill 5:00 tonight to vacate and 200+ residents in 2 additional buildings were incuredged to vacate. Stay tuned to see if the 2 apartment buildings go surfing downhill. Update : The weatherman at noon news just anounsed that the Record for December rainfall has been brocken and currently stands at 13.83" . Still raining and more rain through Wednesday, followed by showers. Christmas predicted to be dry.

 

[digitS']

Bob, you have had more precipitation this month than Spokane Washington has had all year!

13.51 inches

select daily climate report, see since Jan 1
http://w2.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=otx

I'm not planning on complaining about local current conditions, however. Spokane was right at 10" for 2015 at the beginning of the month.

Steve

 

[baymule]

Mudslides. That is awful. I would hate for my house to slide to the bottom of a hill.

 

[Smart Red]

Bobm, I know a lot of Portland is built on the sides of hills. I remember the beautiful homes growing out of the hillsides from my misspent youth. What a terrible thing to have happen! It can't be because it has rained, because it was always raining in the fall and winter in Portland. I must be the volume of rainfall? I remember mostly drizzly rains there.

 

[digitS']

My son leaves Portland today and heads off in this direction. At least, he is supposed to.

He told me he intended to buy tire chains this week, which he may need.

Tomorrow twould probably be a better travel day but he gets an idea ...

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

At least he is going in the right direction -- away from all the excitement and instability, right.

 

[digitS']

By leaving mid-morning and stopping only once for coffee and gasoline, he made it before dark, yesterday.

He reported snow along side the interstate as soon as he reached the Cascades but the mighty Columbia provides a great advantage for the motorist on the nearby interstate. The river is only a little over 100 feet above sea level as it cuts a gorge past equally mighty Mt. Hood standing at 11,249 feet!

It would likely not have been a great idea to wait until this morning for his trip because another inch or so fell and the snow clouds aren't quite finished, even yet.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Happy he is back with his parents safely. Have a great Christmas! How long does he get to stay before he must go back?

 

[digitS']

DD has to be back for work Monday.

Lucky for me, he likes pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cookies ..

. I've got a few pumpkin pancakes for him when he returns from that last minute of shopping at the mall (extra bread dough left over ).

Steve