Winter Sucks! (In Salem, Oregon...)

Yeah, the title of this post speaks for itself. But you can guarantee that I won't become an Atheist any time soon.

So the past week or so has been a cold one as far as I know. Temperatures have been hovering around the mid thirties (in Fahrenheit by the way, if you were wondering.) and has gotten below freezing at night. Now keep in mind that THE SKY WAS CLEAR! NO CLOUDS!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm saying that winter time really sucks here in Salem, Oregon and pretty much the majority of the Willamette Valley. If you recall, I mentioned in a previous post stuff about the Willamette Valley. In it, I mentioned that between the months of November and April of next year, it is very wet as well as 1-3 inches of light snow falls a year and major snowstorms occur only a couple times a decade.

So here's the problem:

When it's cloudy here in the valley, the rain clouds that WE DO get in addition to the surrounding mountains traps whatever heat is rising from the ground. Therefore, it raises the overall temperature and THEREFORE prevents the rain dripping from the clouds to freeze into snowflakes. But when the temperature DOES get to freezing, it's usually clear because there's no clouds to really trap the whatever amounts of heat rising from the ground. All in all, winter time here sucks!

So just 24 hours ago (in relationship to the date and time of this post), there was a weather forecast that called for freezing rains and slight chance of snow with the system moving up north along the valley floor. So I turn on the television to see the latest weather updates ONLY to find that the most of the weather system suddenly made a spiral towards the northeast, therefore missing the Salem area completely before it dissipated somewhere over the Cascades.

Believe me, I love the snow. If you live in a state that borders Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, or possibly northern California, and for some reason, you get almost no snow in the winter time, then there's something really wrong with where you currently reside! We got lucky around this time last year. An arctic blast pounded the valley and we ended up taking an extra week off school (in addition to the two weeks the school district set aside for us). We got about a foot and a half of snow (which froze into a mix with ice) and the power was lost in some areas of town (including us). By far the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it.) winter since moving here! The sad thing about this winter (so far) is that it is just as cold as it was last winter.

In closing here my top five reasons why I hate winter time in Salem, Oregon:

1.) It rains a lot more than it snows.

2.) The rain makes the day more depressing (it's no wonder that major cities in the Pacific Northwest usually have a depression and suicide rate that's higher than the national average.).

3.) When IT DOES snow, it usually doesn't last long (on the ground and in the air).

4.) Everybody else that's belly aching about wanting a school closure (see this post. They only say out of laziness).

5.) Once Christmas and New Years passes, what else is there to really enjoy?! (This one usually applies to any place whether it snows or not.)

(I think I'd better explain #5 a little...)

What I mean to say is that if you're a student (or pretty much anyone in the matter), you enjoy the month of December because there are multiple holidays to enjoy and you're doing more special things than you do compared to the rest of the year. Then, all of sudden, BAM! You're dreading the month of January because of final exams (or post mortem from the previous year whether it's business related, taxes, etc.) and what not. Then it's pretty much a slug fest to the bitter end (At least there's Spring Break, the end of the school year and summer vacation that follows immediately to look forward to.). And then in February, all you have to look forward to is Valentines Day IF you got that "special someone" to share it with.

So what can I say? Winter sucks here in Salem, Oregon. I said it once and I'll say it again: The valley is probably not the best place for me to live. Thanks for reading!

Oh! By the way, for those of you that were wondering, it's currently above freezing right now, and forecasts called for temperatures around the mid forties this upcoming week!

Questions? Comments? Hate mail? Topic suggestions? Please type them up in the comments section.

One more thing:

Hope you like the slight change to the blog page. I decided to go with more colors on the fonts while retaining the black background.