9:46 PM Wed, Oct 31, 2007 | Permalink
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It's a bit of a joke with my golfing buddies, but if I call them up and say I made a tee time, they know the weather is going to be good. You can apply the same logic to the home generator we bought.
We recently moved a fairly remote part of town, and the neighbors all tell us when the power goes out, we're often the last ones to get it back because the power crews don't get to us until after most other areas are served. We got a preview last winter, so that's why we decided to bite the bullet and spend the cash on our own power supply. Since we're already on propane, we had the generator plumbed directly to the propane tank. No, I didn't do the work myself! It was a spendy proposition, especially for something we hope we'll never have to use. But the reaility is we will have to use it. And when you consider the cost of throwing away all the food in your fridge and freezer, along with eating out for 4 or 5 days straight and other expenses, the generator will probably pay for itself over five years or so. Not to mention the cold inconvenience of being without heat and hot water during the dead of winter. Our entire circuit breaker is wired to the generator, so we can choose which things to power, like the water pump and furnace, and fridge, and which things to leave without power, like the stereo system and little-used rooms.
So that begs the question: will it be a stormy winter? I believe it will be. With La Nina conditions like we have now, the Northwest often gets hammered with a wide variation of winter weather. That means we can go through cycles of cold weather with low elevation snow and ice to warm heavy rain and wind and back again. However, at this point in time the La Nina is strong. And during strong La Nina's the Northwest will sometimes have a cold but dry winter, so that's a possibility too.
For now, I'll keep making those tee times until it's time to get the skis out.
Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist
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