I had a chance to head up into the Cascades for a story about snow earlier this week. The scenery - of course - was incredible. The snow-capped mountains and glacier-carved lakes were really amazing. But the story itself was about snow...or, perhaps more appropriately, the lack of it.
The snow is melting fairly quickly at lower elevations this year, and there is just less of it overall because of a relatively warm weather pattern in January. All this got me thinking about climate change and our water here in Oregon. As you probably know, a whopping two-thirds of our water comes from snowpack. And most scientists, including me, believe that as climate change continues our snowpack will be melting away sooner and sooner each year...leaving us with less and less snowpack - and water - for the dry summer months.
So, for those of you who have lived here a long time, how has the weather been changing here in Oregon over the past 10 or 20 years? And are you worried about our water supply as we head into the next several decades? Feel free to post your thoughts by clicking the 'Comments' link and then using the form on that webpage.
4 Comments
Shelly said:
My husband and I can both remember when we were kids (I'm 25, he's 29) the snow would last for days and we'd get a lot more of it. Now that I have a son I miss that because he loves winter more than I do.
Joe Michaels said:
I did some digging and you seem to be right...but on a longer time-scale. Between 1915 and 1924 Portland received over 100 inches of snow. And again, between 1945 and 1954 we saw over 100 inches. But this impressive 100-inch-total hasn't happened again. Instead, our snow totals have tended to decline since the mid-1950s.
Shelly said:
One more thing that I was thinking about. This spring is the coldest that I can remember.
Herm Ernst said:
Since June I have been out in the ocean surfing almost every weekend this summer near Cannon and the Seaside beaches. Have noticed that the water seems much warmer than usual all summer.
Don't really need my wetsuit, just use it out of habit. Has anyone else noticed the same?
My husband and I can both remember when we were kids (I'm 25, he's 29) the snow would last for days and we'd get a lot more of it. Now that I have a son I miss that because he loves winter more than I do.
I did some digging and you seem to be right...but on a longer time-scale. Between 1915 and 1924 Portland received over 100 inches of snow. And again, between 1945 and 1954 we saw over 100 inches. But this impressive 100-inch-total hasn't happened again. Instead, our snow totals have tended to decline since the mid-1950s.
One more thing that I was thinking about. This spring is the coldest that I can remember.
Since June I have been out in the ocean surfing almost every weekend this summer near Cannon and the Seaside beaches. Have noticed that the water seems much warmer than usual all summer.
Don't really need my wetsuit, just use it out of habit. Has anyone else noticed the same?