Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Our Weird Ass Weather


I live in the Willamette Valley, south of Portland, north of Eugene. My city has a very strange bubble that surrounds it that keeps snow from reaching the valley floor. Not to mention, we're at about 120 feet above sea level. It snows about every 3-5 years here. It's the kind of snow that comes for 2 days, makes it miserable to get around town and then, we get rain for the rest of the winter and well into the spring.

This year, it's snowed at least once a week since the end of February. What the heck? Today, it snowed nearly all day. This. Never. Happens.

The view from my desk at work. It's snowing.
You may already know this, but I love to take pictures of scenery. I'm really not good at people pictures, but plants and animals and mountains are easy for me to take pictures of. I live in a great location for taking pictures. We get cherry blossoms and daffodils. We live an hour from some of the most beautiful and interesting forests I can imagine. I get a lot of opportunities to take pictures. When I take pictures, I file them by date. I recently realized that I've taken pictures at the end of February and beginning of March for the last 3 years.

Here's a look at the difference in the seasons we're experiencing.

March 6th, 2010
February 27th, 2011
March 21st, 2012 (not a black and white photo)

So. If this is the result of global warming, I'm calling shenanigans. What's warm about this? It's f-f-f-freezing outside. 

Is this because of the earthquakes that tipped our planet just a little bit? Like some kind of strange butterfly effect that's slowly shifting our seasons by 2-3 months each year? Come to think of it, summer didn't really show up for us until August last year, but we only had one piddly snow.

Whatever it is, it's nice to look at but I'm ready for some real sunshine. I'm ready to relearn how to ride my bike.