From Snow to Floods

This has been such an unusual winter!  Typical Portland winters include a lot of rain, with one snow event at most, and that usually means it drops some snow that doesn't even stick.  To illustrate what an extreme winter this has been, here are some pics and stats.

Number of snow forts built: 2

Number of snow plows Portland owns: Approximately 45
Number of snow plows we had to borrow from Seattle: 8
Number of school days missed: 9 as of today, and that's not including 'late start' days
Coldest winter day so far: 12 degrees F
Top 24-hour snowfall this year: 11.8 inches
Weeks without garbage pick-up: 2

The intriguing story here for us is what the school district will choose to do with those snow days.  This year they'd built 2 or 3 into the schedule, but nobody could have predicted 9.  Tacking them all onto the end of the school year isn't an option, so where will we make up the time?  Desmond's principal has mentioned using training days and lengthening days by 15 minutes until the days have been made up.  Those were the options they considered 8-9 years ago when the winter was really bad.  Who knows what they'll decide this time around!

As of today we're done with snow.  The temperature got up to around 40 degrees F today, and it's been raining nonstop since last night.  Most of the snow has disappeared, and we've been left with some flooding.  After school today, the kids and I drove around to check out the places that typically flood around here.  Waters were looking pretty high.  These first pictures are of Fanno Creek at different spots around Tigard.

Fanno Creek at North Dakota St

North Dakota

Fanno Creek behind the Tigard Library

Behind Tigard Library

Behind Tigard Library

Behind Tigard Library

This picture is cool.  Where you see that striped pole there should be a bike/pedestrian path.  It's one we ride often to get from our house to the library.  Today it's been completely overtaken by flood waters.

Fanno Creek near the back side of Town Hall near Tigard Library

Near the back side of Town Hall near Tigard Library

Don't think many people will be using the Fanno Creek Park today.

Near the back side of Town Hall near Tigard Library

Near the back side of Town Hall near Tigard Library

Near the back side of Town Hall near Tigard Library

The remaining pics are our very own Summerlake Park.  I have seen Summer Creek flowing pretty quickly into Summerlake before, but never quite like this.

The photo above was actually taken from the same vantage point as the picture below.  Big difference, huh?

I love unusual weather, so this whole winter has been pretty awesome for me!  I guess that's easy to say when your power has stayed on the whole time and your house isn't prone to flooding.