autumn awaits

We dropped below 50° last night, first of many as we shift to cooler weather. Nights have been clear as well as cool; the Milky Way is back after several bouts of smoke in recent weeks.

The most painful of the smoke sources came from the Eagle Creek fire, which east winds swept rapidly down-river. The Willamette valley was smokey for days, and even here we received a dusting of ash and the smell of smoke. The worst day of the bunch was in early September - 95 degrees, smoke and ash, and a funeral to attend.

captured from OregonLive website

The fire did not entirely wipe out the area marked in red, but much of the area suffered damage. Right along the creeks are likely rather lush in many spots, and the Multnomah Falls lodge was saved (as of today - the fire is still burning!). Sparks send the fire west during the strong east winds in early September, then the wind shifted and more recently the eastern edge has pushed eastward. Areas from Shepperds Dell to Herman Creek have been affected - and even a spot fire in Washington caught fire from the hard-blown embers! The Oregon side is too rugged to be a fair fight against fires, as the wind and near-vertical terrain does not allow for reasonable fire lines or any sense of control below the 4000-foot ridgetops. Interstate 84 has been closed for about a week, and the eastbound lanes won't be safe without checking a lot of charred slopes for imminent failure.

looking south from Longview as the east wind blows smoke out of the Gorge

This weekend we expect an inch or so of rain, which will help a great deal if winds don't swirl and lightning doesn't appear to restart the chaos. Hopefully the moisture will be pervasive and persistent, and nature can begin the healing process. Landslides will be the next worry once the fire is out, as the underbrush and roots will no longer hold back any strong runoff. Difficult times.

a surreal 2017 continues

It's been an exceptional year in many ways. Not always good, but definitely riding the tails of the distribution curve!

• Winter was amazing for its stretches of cold and snow, topped off by the 13 inches on Superbowl Sunday.
• Spring was absurdly grey and damp - from 1Jul 2016 to 30Jun 2017 we had over 98 inches of rain!
• Summer had its heat spells, no surprise there. What was decidedly uncommon was the amount of smoke west of the Cascades. A month or more ago it was fires from Canada whose smoke came south, then the past week smoke from southern Oregon came north. 
• The past three days have seen the Gorge go up in flames, whipped to a frenzy by powerful east winds from Cascade Locks to Corbett. Portland (and even Longview) received a dusting of ash from the fires to our east. So many good memories of Gorge hikes are still intact, but they definitely won't look the same next time.
• The sun disappeared for about 2 minutes.. but we knew that was coming at least!
• In-laws in law John and Theo were taken from us in a brief heart-beat; their funeral was today as the ash drifted slowly to earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The late afternoon at our home brought the first sign of several hoped-for change in the weather: the west wind arrived and knocked temperatures down 8 degrees in a half-hour, and before sunset temperatures fell into the 60s. Hooray! Next up, a chance of showers - though lightning could accompany them from the remnants of Lidia, which would be very bad. If the wind reverses in the Gorge the fire should fall back to already-charred areas and hopefully become more manageable. As with everything in life: we shall see.

fire and shadow

Yes, a nest of Balrogs has taken over the Pacific NW region.

No? Guess it's another 'heat snap' then. 

Add heat, season with wildfire smoke and simmer. Live with it until you snap.

fires in north-central BC + NNW winds = yuk (yellow tint mine)

This heat was well advertised and anticipated. Models were forecasting 110°, which has never happened this side of a Medford-TheDalles line! The PDX weather folk explained how the 850hPa temperatures occasionally go wild in the models despite other pressure levels appearing typical for a midsummer blast. In this case the 28° Celsius at 850 hasn't happened (yet?) but the arrival of smoke from British Columbia has likely capped the intensity of the insolation.

Salem did measure 25°C (5am reading, yellow highlight) so we are capable of record-setting temperatures, and the Portland airport has set two new daily records. If the smoke clears a bit perhaps the elusive 108° could be achieved.. but forecasts are trending down as the smoke settles in for a few days.

Here on the hill-top we have hit the mid-90s the past two days, not comfortable but not 103 either! The smoky blanket could make tonight pretty miserable though. Portland's thermal blanket kept summertime lows in the mid-upper 60s at times, and we have not missed those nights in the least. However, last night dropped only to 68.7° - warmer than KPDX! - and we may see worse tonight. By late Friday the marine push should arrive, but it is expected to be a weak one that knocks us to the lower 80s by Monday. No rain or serious clouds expected, though an outside chance of thunder as the heat breaks over the weekend.
We shall see..

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3Aug: PDX stopped at 105° as of 7PM. We again bottomed out around 67°, warmer than Portland - I guess we are closer to 850MB than they are! According to this site, not much though - and another site suggests we're at 985hPa. Fun facts!

heat's end?

We made it to September without a heat pump. Our financial strategies pulled down many debts but in doing so much of the down payment for this went elsewhere. Late August was a string of 80-90° days, but on the 31st we had over ½ inch of rain. September began with fog! Over an inch of rain already as we head toward autumn, and no 80° days in the forecast. We could still pull a few warm days, but for the most part summer heat has ended for us here.

In the garden our spinach has gone to flowers, a dozen or more hops have arrived, and a few small zucchini are doing their best. The rains will cheer them for a last dash, and hopefully a few days of steamed 'zukes will come before long. The big mower was only needed once on the major slopes, thankfully - but it sure does the job well!

Little Mithril isn't so small any more, getting lanky and matching up more closely with her mama-cat. It's time to trap and spay, with a bit more luck mama will take the drive this year. Besides the cats, several other projects remain before the true wet season: some more rain-diversions, a porch roof and finishing the two stairs outside are the big ones, and a bit of painting would be good too.  The roof must wait another year like the heat pump, but the gutters really need to be re-sloped for better big-rainfall events.

Also, it's time to buy firewood for the first time - the previous owners stocked us very well and we were sparing with it, but the pile is now essentially empty. Our new green 'truck' can handle a decent amount, likely enough for the year.. now to get out and shop / chop!

speed-mowing and bird-watching

I broke the 35-minute mowing 'record' just now. That's just the second mowing of the upper lawn, which should be more embarrassing than it appears. The lower lawns have not been completely mowed yet, and of course the lowest lawn (that I wasn't sure belonged to us!) has not been addressed yet in our 2+ years here.  Oops.

This heat wave came with a bonus ¼-inch of rain beforehand.  We managed to assemble the square garden and plant our vegetables, which had suffered during the previous warm spell in their pots.  Several plants received larger pots too, so that rain settled them in nicely.  Not everything is where we'd like it to be later, but in the ground beats in the pot when the sun beats down.

I haven't quite assembled the front-porch roof, which would also double as a sun-shade at times like this. We'll get there next week once these three days reaching for 99° have passed.

Our thrush count remains low, so they must be waiting for a major push soon.  Our robins still dominate the airwaves with crows singing bass croaks, and a few whistles and warbles intervene. I spotted our local Towhee again today, with his amber eye and colorful coat - but I do not yet know which song belongs to them.  Hopefully a few more of the Swainson's Thrushes will get here soon and sing us gently to rest and to wakefulness in the coming few months!






Update - how funny!

While shooting the Towhee I caught a Swainson's thrush staring at the funny colorful bird.. that's him on the right side of this other image! I had no clue the thrush was there until I went to crop some of the photos the next day.

first 90° day?

Today and tomorrow are the expected peak heat days, and it's a hot one.  No wind from anywhere unlike yesterday's easterly flow, and our thermometer just hit 94°. Granted it's in direct sunshine right now, but it does have a solar fan built in to compensate for thermal buildup. There's just no cool place to pull from right now!

I pulled our old-school dial thermometer from its shady spot to a place on the deck - it is holding in the low 80s which makes a little more sense.  Perhaps that sunny post needs to be shifted a bit further west to where the Solo Cedar can shade it later in the day?

Done!  Perhaps a temporary shift, but I moved the gage further into the house's afternoon shadow. Now reading is below 90 and still falling. It's about six feet from the house so some morning contamination could happen, but later in the day should be less amazing. More likely the main effect will be on winds as they swirl past the house.. I must get a taller pole and find a shadier spot!