January 05, 2004
Snow, snow, snow.
It's snowing almost everywhere in Oregon tonight, and has been for the last week or so. Which is very unusual for Eugene and the southern Willamette valley. Causing quite a few problems I guess, but most folks seem to be just hunkering down and enjoying it. Had a genuine white Christmas even.
As a southern California boy, it's a bit of a switch for me, but I must say it's awfully beautiful, especially up in the mountains outside Eugene which is where I am. And not that cold either, just down into the 20s so far. There was supposed to be a really cold Arctic front moving down here, but I guess it didn't get much farther than Portland.
Hope it doesn't last too long, if for no other reason than that I need to get off the mountain and get down into the city and do some stuff, and that mountain road could be a bit tricky when it's icy. But in the meantime, the view is great, so "let it snow, let it snow..."
Eugene Register-Guard article,
Valley feels chill of rare snow.
Instead of the gloppy, wet "graupel-type" flakes that usually tumble out of Western Oregon skies, these were delicately filigreed crystals of the kind you probably imagined as a kid, then crafted with scissors and typing paper in hand.
In official snow taxonomy, they're called "stellar crystals," one of 10 types of snowflakes that scientists have so far identified. And it may be years before they reach the Willamette Valley floor again.
"When you see them fall, it's really quite beautiful," Libbrecht said. "You look up at your windshield and see a bunch of little stars."
