The Weather Channel

[sebby]

One of the main reasons I moved back to Portland 3 years ago was the weather.

The fucking irony.

[Armoreska]

One of the main reasons I moved back to Portland 3 years ago was the weather.

The fucking irony.

You're in Portland? I'm kinna jealous. (I basically live in the constant factory smoke anyway)

[xianjiro]

One of the main reasons I moved back to Portland 3 years ago was the weather.

The fucking irony.

So how are you coping with the horrid air? I've just stayed inside as much as possible. Of course the dog still needs to go out, but as soon as he's done, it's back inside with the HEPA filter running. (I'm so tired of that noise and it makes it harder to hear movies. )

I'm just hoping for a good rain tonight/tomorrow.

[sebby]

One of the main reasons I moved back to Portland 3 years ago was the weather.

The fucking irony.

So how are you coping with the horrid air? I've just stayed inside as much as possible. Of course the dog still needs to go out, but as soon as he's done, it's back inside with the HEPA filter running. (I'm so tired of that noise and it makes it harder to hear movies. )

I'm just hoping for a good rain tonight/tomorrow.

It's been rough. I ordered an air purifier but it isn't getting here til Friday. I've been hunkered down at home most of the last 5 days. Windows are completely sealed and covered up so it looks like night all the time in here. Smell of smoke still finds its way in. I don't mean to be too dramatic but at times it feels like experiencing a low level psychological and physical trauma in slow motion. I do feel lucky being 35 and generally healthy rather than elderly or having underlying issues like copd, asthma, heart disease. And also being in Portland proper one is generally insulated from true wildfire anxiety. Been thinking of maybe finding a hotel that has cleaner air and staying there through the week even though I can't really afford it.

Today's revised forecast was also a shot to the gut.

[maxwelldeux]

One of the main reasons I moved back to Portland 3 years ago was the weather.

The fucking irony.

So how are you coping with the horrid air? I've just stayed inside as much as possible. Of course the dog still needs to go out, but as soon as he's done, it's back inside with the HEPA filter running. (I'm so tired of that noise and it makes it harder to hear movies. )

I'm just hoping for a good rain tonight/tomorrow.

It's been rough. I ordered an air purifier but it isn't getting here til Friday. I've been hunkered down at home most of the last 5 days. Windows are completely sealed and covered up so it looks like night all the time in here. Smell of smoke still finds its way in. I don't mean to be too dramatic but at times it feels like experiencing a low level psychological and physical trauma in slow motion. I do feel lucky being 35 and generally healthy rather than elderly or having underlying issues like copd, asthma, heart disease. And also being in Portland proper one is generally insulated from true wildfire anxiety. Been thinking of maybe finding a hotel that has cleaner air and staying there through the week even though I can't really afford it.

Today's revised forecast was also a shot to the gut.

I have significantly higher quality air than y'all, but it's still not good. I can smell smoke. It's a little hazy. The problem is that the air is affecting me - I did some yoga Saturday, but I ended up breathing hard enough that it wiped me out the rest of the day and all day Sunday. Felt like I wasn't quite able to catch my breath the whole time. Better today, but still not ideal. We dipped up into "hazardous" today for the first time I've seen, so that's fun. It's just hilarious when the forecast is basically "Don't go outside. Also, try to breathe as little as possible. If you can, travel hundreds of miles away."

[xianjiro]

Right now my air quality is "327 Hazardous" and Portland is "480 Hazardous" - for those not familiar with the rating, it stops at 500. Both these readings are considered unsafe for everyone.

Yeah, I've tried to do as little as possible since even if we can't see it, I am told there's plenty of crap in the air that will make it into the bloodstream. Enough starts to affect the heart though I'm unclear why and how.

Not sure where'd you go, Sebby: it's not like clear air is just around the bend. Best I can read the maps, looks like SE Idaho, much of central Nevada, or Salt Lake City. What are you seeing the forecast? I'm seeing lots of chance for rain (though that can bring lightning to the Cascades).

[Armoreska]

Right now my air quality is "327 Hazardous" and Portland is "480 Hazardous"

Yeesh. I sometimes get my room smoked up by neighbors burning leaves.

[Armoreska]

If I were stuck in a fire, I would just ask acquaintances to go stay with them in other cities until it clears up.

[sebby]

Right now my air quality is "327 Hazardous" and Portland is "480 Hazardous" - for those not familiar with the rating, it stops at 500. Both these readings are considered unsafe for everyone.

Yeah, I've tried to do as little as possible since even if we can't see it, I am told there's plenty of crap in the air that will make it into the bloodstream. Enough starts to affect the heart though I'm unclear why and how.

Not sure where'd you go, Sebby: it's not like clear air is just around the bend. Best I can read the maps, looks like SE Idaho, much of central Nevada, or Salt Lake City. What are you seeing the forecast? I'm seeing lots of chance for rain (though that can bring lightning to the Cascades).

Weekend forecast was very positive. More rain, smoke dissipating Mon/Tues, etc. That's on hold, it seems, through the end of the week maybe. What I have learned is that forecasting air quality is near impossible. Everyone's been wrong. Best they can do is maybe give you an idea of the next 12-24 hours. AQI numbers are also all over the place. Portland at the moment is somewhere between 360 and 495, depending where you look.

[xianjiro]

If I were stuck in a fire, I would just ask acquaintances to go stay with them in other cities until it clears up.

thing is, one would have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get away from the smoke - Hawaii might be about right

[Armoreska]

Yeah, Utah or North Dakota I guess

[maxwelldeux]

If I were stuck in a fire, I would just ask acquaintances to go stay with them in other cities until it clears up.

thing is, one would have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get away from the smoke - Hawaii might be about right

Yeah - and with everyone you're responsible for. Wife, 2 dogs, 1 cat. Hop in the car, drive ~18 consecutive hours east, and I'll have decent quality air. That would put me in Wyoming, where all I have to do is avoid people and COVID.

[xianjiro]

Yeah, pretty insane how much area is covered by the smoke, though today we've move up the scale to only 'Unhealthy'. Portland is still 'Very Unhealthy.'

Didn't seem much of the rain.

[maxwelldeux]

Yeah, pretty insane how much area is covered by the smoke, though today we've move up the scale to only 'Unhealthy'. Portland is still 'Very Unhealthy.'

Didn't seem much of the rain.

I was hoping it would have more of an effect - we had a sprinkle this morning, but it did nothing for the air.

And this is probably the best map I've seen on the air quality: https://gispub.epa.gov/airnow/?tab=0&cl ... layer=none

[xianjiro]

So, around 5pm my likelihood of precip zooms to 98%.

waiting ... .🥱🌧

[xianjiro]

Had .08" of rain overnight. Not a lot. Won't do much for the plants, but it has helped the air (as well as the change in prevailing winds). We're almost to "Moderate", so just barely still in the "Unhealthy for Sensitive" category. Will probably take the dog for a stroll later. I know he's desperate to get out and go hunt. He's been a bid odd cooped up for this long after we'd been enjoy the late summer night to get out and go all over town.

Lots of thunder last night. Didn't see any lightning here. Been monitoring the news to see if there are reports of lightning fires - none yet.

How are things for you guys?

[maxwelldeux]

How are things for you guys?

We're also down into the "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" category, and the forecast is to rain all day, but we've yet to see a drop. I'm waiting/hoping for more...

[xianjiro]

We're at good - 22 locally and about 33 points below Portland though I've no idea where in Portland that reading is taken. (I do know where the local site is.)

We had a thunderstorm/squall move through this afternoon. Since the rains started in earnest about 24 hours ago, we've had about a third of an inch which is good news as it was getting pretty dry. Might see some more Saturday, but then we dry back out and temps should be normal. Low to mid 70s rocks my world. Great weather for opening windows, going for a walk, and getting lots of fresh air.

Thought it was strange, but this afternoon is the first time I felt some difficulty breathing. No idea what that was about.

Still no word of lightning caused fires though I haven't tried real hard to find them. I figure if they haven't made the news then any that might have started couldn't be all that bad. Let's hope.

I guess it's still pretty rough in CA though.

[maxwelldeux]

Ditto here - Down to a 26, so air is "good" again. Rain has also been helpful.

[Armoreska]

10news.com/news/local-news/in-depth-why-la-nina-could-make-wildfire-season-worse

conditions are in place for a La Niña weather pattern in the fall and winter of 2020-21.
Southern California typically sees less rain during La Niña years.

[Armoreska]

[Armoreska]

since we dont have a general SNAFU channel
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/ ... fic-beach/

[xianjiro]

since we dont have a general SNAFU channel
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/ ... fic-beach/

but we do

[xianjiro]

Took the dog out for our final before bed and DAMN! it's cold! It's 27F (-3C) and it's not even Halloween yet! Forecast is for 24F. I guess we're running a good twelve to fifteen degrees below 'normal' for this time of year and we're going to blow the old record (mid 1950s) off the chart by a few degrees to boot. No moisture with this cold front, so at least there's that, but I always hate when everything dies so early. (We can have roses blooming into December on some years.)

I want to say this is the earliest it's gotten this cold in the time I've lived here or can remember, but I have no veracity behind a statement like that and seem to recall one very frigid Halloween ... Still, this is an unusual cold snap. Twenties are a January - February sort of thing. Okay, and I can think of some cold Decembers. Maybe even November?

BRRRR. But it's only supposed to last a single night with tomorrow's predicted low twelve degrees warmer. Really strange.

edit: the forecast low (24F) is three degree higher than the all time record low recorded in the month of October 1971 and we are also a good 20F below mean low

[OldAle1]

Like xian we're experiencing some below-normal temps here in southern Wisconsin - pretty similar with temps below 30 (-1 C) just about every night for the last several, and daytime temps only in the upper 30s/low 40s (say 4-7 C). First snow where I am last night though it's just a trace and I assume will disappear as soon as the sun gets out. Every year I always imagine that we'll have a nice fall with temperatures just gradually dropping day to day over Sept-Nov, and every year I'm disappointed when we go from summer into winter in a week, it seems.

[Armoreska]

Montana is -20 C until tomorrow

I wonder if below zero Fahrenheit has any significance to Americans, like wow now it's not just cold it's HELLA cold.

[OldAle1]

I wonder if below zero Fahrenheit has any significance to Americans, like wow now it's not just cold it's HELLA cold.

Yes, unless you live in one of those fairly rare places where it gets below zero regularly. Here it sometimes never drops that cold for a whole winter - it's like hitting 100 degrees in the summer, happens a few times usually, but not always. -10 to -20 virtually never happens where I am.

[pitchorneirda]

Here in Bordeaux, France, it rains A LOT this month, at least as much as in...winter usually (from January to mid-April more or less), I don't know if it's the same causes of the cold in America but the coincidence is striking

[xianjiro]

well, we know America is a big place so -20 in Montana is not unheard of though I'm sure it's considered rare this early in the season. But coming from El Paso as I did, a Montana Christmas as -19 (before windchill) was just insane. Can't remember what the daytime high was though. I do know it wasn't above freezing.

Yes, outside for high mountains and the upper Great Plains though, minus anything is a pretty big deal. Where I live, the teens are 'pretty damn cold' and single digits are 'unbelievably damn cold' - yes, those are official terms and yes I lie in jest. I don't really remember what would have been unbelievably cold in the Southwest at this point, but both places I lived regularly had snow in winter - just not a lot and it just rarely stuck around for more than a few hours. As a kid in Chicago, we always had snow and it usually arrived around Thanksgiving and stayed until March/April. I left in 79 and since there have been a number of winters with little or no snow: that was when people started to ask, what's going on with the weather? And back then, the conspiracy theorists were convinced the Russians had figured out how to control weather over the US. (no joke there)

While the article didn't say what the all-time lowest low is for October, the overnight low in Salt Lake City was 19F and that's three degrees lower than the record low for the date which has stood since 1878.

But still, for me, beyond the actual frigid night, the thing that surprises me is how brief this cold snap actually will be - it's like a 12 hour mini-cold snap. It was pretty breezy yesterday and Saturday, but cold enough yesterday that I skipped a serious dog walk. It wasn't pleasant on Saturday, but we still did three miles: think it was at least 10 degrees warmer.

[OldAle1]

You're lucky. We've been well below average for most of the past week, and the high today is just supposed to be about 40 here - and hazy/overcast and slightly windy. I"ll go out for a little bit soon but it won't be for long. I have this thing about not dressing for winter until November (I also won't put on the AC until May) and I'm gonna be pretty cold in my windbreaker. Supposed to get up to seasonal averages in the upper 40s / low 50s (that's around 10 degrees for all you un-American foreigners with your evil French commie Metrix voodoo numbers) starting Wednesday. Maybe a little bit of real autumn yet!

[maxwelldeux]

I wonder if below zero Fahrenheit has any significance to Americans, like wow now it's not just cold it's HELLA cold.

Yes, unless you live in one of those fairly rare places where it gets below zero regularly. Here it sometimes never drops that cold for a whole winter - it's like hitting 100 degrees in the summer, happens a few times usually, but not always. -10 to -20 virtually never happens where I am.

When I moved away from Minneapolis, I was really excited that "packing the truck day" had warmed up into the single digits. It was ~8F (-13C) that day.

And my parents (Spokane, WA) got ~6" of snow and had temps in the teens. Weird.

[mightysparks]

We had a few cool days this last winter but it was the warmest one I can remember. Summer’s coming up fast, getting pretty warm already. Hoping to make use of the beach this summer as it may be our last living on the coast, but I hate flies and getting sweaty and I burn after 30 minutes because I’m too pasty

[Armoreska]

My city had the mildest year of all time by quite some margin.
A fairly benign summer, hottest march-cold april, 2nd-hottest winter and record autumn (+0.5C compared to 2012).
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/global/ti ... /1880-2020

[OldAle1]

We've been slightly above-average for the past week - we had snow about 10 days ago, and a slight cold dip at the time, so that bit of white stuff stuck around until yesterday when the temp shot up to almost 60 F (almost a record), only to drop down to near zero last night with a probable high today in the teens and strong winds. So a very cold and dry Christmas here.

[Armoreska]

Forecast +10 around end of year. We might be heading for warmest December too.

[mightysparks]

38 degrees today

[xianjiro]

38 degrees today

wow, that's cold - only six degrees cooler and you'll have a white Christmas too!. ❄

[Armoreska]

First snow (non-minor).

[OldAle1]

Is that typical for you?

We had our first snow 10 weeks ago! Minor stuff though. First major snowfall (8" or 20 cm) here just after the New Year, and what's a little weird is that the temp has been a very stable, near-freezing for a solid 10-12 days since; this combined with lots of clouds has helped to make it an intensely foggy and gray January so far - today was the first sunny day in a week and only the third of the month. I usually don't mind dreary but this is getting me down (along with other things).

[Armoreska]

Yes, common.
There's a cold front coming to EE. Romania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine etc brace for impact!