If you’ve been following this blog or if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know the weather this spring so far has been crazy. Cold and wet with regular snow storms and hail. After a long winter of short, cold days, this is not really what we need. The weather changes very quickly around here. It can be sunny one minute, snowing the next, then raining an hour later. Of course, nobody even notices much until the wind hits 40 or 50 MPH.
Here’s what it looked like last night about 6 PM:
Cold and snowing, not looking good for a day outdoors the next day.
When I woke up, I had to scrape ice off the windshield of the truck before heading into town. It was mostly sunny, but in the low thirties. When I got home from taking care of the weekly trip into town, it had warmed up a little into the mid forties, but the sun was out, so down the road we go.
Cold on the downhills, sweating the long, steep climbs; pretty much the way it goes around here this time of year. Still a little snow in the shade above 2000′, probably snowing hard above 4000′ judging by the clouds over the higher peaks. Aside from the occasional ranch hound chasing you down the road, you’re pretty much on your own.
The “spring” weather means the county workers come by and sweep all the gravel and cinders off the bike lanes and curbs of the local roads, which is big plus for bike riders because you don’t have to ride way out in the road. That means a lot when you have logging trucks bombing down the mountain roads. Spring is also the start of big time logging operations.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the second warmest day of the month and the second day of the month over 55 degrees. I guess that’s the best we can hope for so far this year.