I've been thinking a lot about why native Bendites are constantly surprised by bad weather in late spring.
I think it's because we have a vague memory of a spring that happened once, long ago. Of birds singing, crocus's booming, rock chucks mating. We're pretty sure it happened.
And we harbor the hope, the illusion that someday, someday! it will happen again.
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4 comments:
"I think it's because we have a vague memory of a spring that happened, once long ago. Of birds singing, crocus's booming, woodchucks mating."
Umm, I think that was a Disney cartoon you saw when you were 6, Dunc.
But seriously ...
Why DOES Central Oregon have such awful spring weather? I would appreciate it if someone out there with meteorological knowledge could enlighten us.
From my own observations, it seems that we don't get semi-consistently sunny, warm weather until the big summer high-pressure area forms over the Pacific NW and pushes the jet stream to the north, deflecting the Pacific storms off of ourpath. This typically happens in early to mid-June. Until then ... crap, crap and more crap.
My first spring in Bend, the spring of '95, was actually a real, live, goshdarn spring with warm days, rain, blooms, flowers and shoots coming up out of the warm, damp, fertile ground. Look it up. I know it happened, I was there! Every year since then, spring has been schnizzle on a cracker. Rain, snow, cold, hot, cold, rain snow. A really nice day thrown in at random to throw you off, thinking "Now we are on our way!". The very definition of inconsistent. Then, magically it is 95ยบ and stays that way. In July. For a short time. We really only get 4 months, at the very very best, of good weather here. You know, "sparkling" days. "But at least it's not humid!"
"Every year since then, spring has been schnizzle on a cracker."
LOL! Good phrase. Or, to recycle a metaphor I coined earlier, it's shit on a cracker -- and the Chamber of Commerce wants us to think it's caviar.
"We really only get 4 months, at the very very best, of good weather here."
I would be more charitable than that; I'd say 4.5 months -- the latter half of June plus July, August, September and October. Usually Indian summer lasts until Halloween, and then -- BANG! -- the curtain of winter falls, not to lift again until mid-June.
Usually Indian summer lasts until HalloweenI don't know, man, I remember some pretty chilly Halloweens (one or two with snow) from when I was a kid. Maybe global warming's taken care of that now.
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