Some winter storms in the Pacific Northwest are tropical storms that move their way across the Pacific and hit the west coast of the US. Being tropical they bring "warmer" weather than you would normally expect in the winter. The weathermen call them the "Pineapple Express". Along with the wet wet weather, high temperature records are broken.
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We left home just after Thanksgiving to beat the forecasted snow coming down the Canadian Fraser Valley. We just barely beat it as the next day we had light snow showers before we left the campground and as we headed south all the hilltops were white. For a week the temperatures were cool and we felt like such wusses with 2 electric heaters going full bore and 2 propane furnaces on. During that week the skies were blue. We enjoyed that week trekking south eating Oregon specialties like Tillamook cheese directly from the cow (via the factory) and fresh off the boat Dungeness crab. Yummy!
We listened to weather tales about the heavy rains that had just hit northern California and how thankful the Californians were as they've been in a long time drought. As we continued south, we didn't see anymore clear skies.
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| The Tillamook Cheesery |
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| Only light rain - ha |
By the time we traveled our last day in Oregon, we were traveling in monsoons again.
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| Getting not so nice to drive in. |
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| The river has overflowed it's banks and has covered the RR tracks. Ugly driving. |
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Today we traveled new roads (to us) and saw signs of flash floods, road shoulders collapsing, and rocks from hillside slides. This area had 8 1/2" of rain last week. But wait...4 Weather Warnings have been announced today. Another storm is due to hit the this area of California tomorrow night with heavy rains (up to 4") and high winds (to 60 mph).
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We need to get tucked away safely and above high water for a day or two.
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This is a pretty big storm. Radar images show this Pineapple Express coming ashore from San Francisco to the north end of Vancouver Island Canada, a distance of 1000 miles. So back home is going to get another good dose of rain also. If we really wanted to be in this much rain we could have stayed home!
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Wipers are getting a good workout. (Note: all pix have rain drips on the windshield)
