Wintry weather open thread

Reader Bill Alsup snapped this photo of the railroad tracks near SW 5th Street and the 217 overpass in Beaverton.


Good morning folks! I’m in Austin getting ready for NAHBS, but I hear that some white stuff fell on the ground in Portland this morning.

How bad is it? Will you survive?! Are you still going to ride into work (I hope so)? What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods?

Reader Charles R. sent in this photo from last night
on the trail adjacent to North Portland Road.

As you can see from the photo on the right, conditions seem to be a bit tricky out there. From what I’ve heard, snow was most abundant in the West Hills and North Portland. Learn about the latest conditions at PublicAlerts.org.

Use this post to update your fellow BikePortlanders about the conditions throughout the city.

Here’s another reader photo of the north side of the Hawthorne Bridge…

— Not that you asked, but it’s 70s and cloudy/humid here in Austin!

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.

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Jeff P
Jeff P
13 years ago

Boring on the westside – at least from Hayhurst/Raleigh Hills out to Tigard; maybe an 1″ or so and wet. Easily trackable. Car lanes are only wet for the most part. I don’t get to cross the lump into DT anymore so there is not really any elevation on my route…one other set of tracks. Cars as usual are driving where they please apparently pleased not be hitting curbs or trees.

Enjoy!

Bob_M
Bob_M
13 years ago

Pretty much the same in inner SE. Wet snow and no problems if one is careful. Dozens of tracks on the springwater, and critter tracks in the snow. I got a chuckle seeing a guy in jeans, sandals, a hip courier bag and no fenders with the wet skunk stripe up his butt.

Jack
Jack
13 years ago

I was rudely awoken at about 5:30 this morning by my girlfriend’s phone ringing. Her public place of employment was letting her know they wouldn’t be opening until 10 due to road conditions.

I excitedly jumped out of bed to start my commute early and enjoy some of the slipperiness. Unfortunately, on the East side I found only slush covered by a light dusting of snow. I couldn’t have slid out if I’d tried.

Still looks nice out there though.

matt picio
13 years ago
Reply to  Jack

Plenty of snow in NE this morning – at least until 8:30 or so.

deborah
deborah
13 years ago

Commuted in around 7:40 this morning. As expected the Hawthorne bridge was frozen, but not terrible as long as I took it at the right speed. The worst part of my commute was Jefferson at SW 14th. 14th was really slick. Be careful for cars that cannot stop as well as they normally do.

h
h
13 years ago

it is only one inch of snow so far… it is not snowing at this moment. Temp in mid 30’s… Roads are mostly wet with a bit of snow. some streets in hills are a bit slippery. I saw a few cyclists this morning. I did not ride my bicycle to work today. Hardly serious…

Swift Benjamin
Swift Benjamin
13 years ago

Less than an inch out in Beaverton, no real problems except for some snow turds and a couple of cars in the bike lane. It seems that most of my cycling coworkers were less interested in braving the snow.

Schrauf
Schrauf
13 years ago

Boring is right. On the other hand, the solid freeze to 20 degrees or so tonight could make Friday more interesting, unless the roads dry out enough during the day today.

Jpdx
Jpdx
13 years ago

I cannot believe they cancelled school for this. They should be ashamed. And the buses have chains on! WTF!

Jack
Jack
13 years ago
Reply to  Jpdx

A lot of public offices are closed or delayed this morning too. What a huge waste of money.

I wish I could take the day off with pay every time a sunny day starts with some precipitation.

+1 on the buses with chains. They take two minutes to remove, time which is more than made up for by being able to drive at normal speeds.

davemess
davemess
13 years ago
Reply to  Jack

I saw a bus with chains last night at 5:30!?!?!?!? That really bugged me.

It was actually nice riding in this morning, a little slick in Hillsdale, but Terwiliger was great, and there was only a fraction of traffic!

Jeff P
Jeff P
13 years ago
Reply to  Jack

I’m betting driver unions and tri-met lawyers/liability says chains stay on until maintenance folks can get to the busses.

Jack
Jack
13 years ago
Reply to  Jeff P

Regardless of who is causing the problem, it remains to be a problem that is solvable — as is often the case — by leveraging common sense instead of absolute policy.

matt picio
13 years ago
Reply to  Jpdx

You obviously live on the flats on the east side. NE had 3″ this morning. Hillsboro & Beaverton had as much in many spots. The hilly areas got more. This was a typical portland snowfall in that it was all melted by 10:30am, but it’s also 5 snow events in 3 years – more than usual for Portland, and only 2 years since the 9+ inches of Snowpocalypse. People here now are acting like New Orleans did the first couple years after Katrina. (although obviously on a FAR smaller scale)

It’s easy to condemn the city, and people complained about the city/county/industries not doing ENOUGH 2 years ago when they dealt with the worst snowfall in 40 years. Seriously, what did this hurt? If commerce can’t survive a single day with half the employees not showing up, than it’s in far worse shape than anyone is admitting.

bikeyvol
bikeyvol
13 years ago

the most annoying part of my commute from inner NE this morning was the fattie flakes floating into my eyes. Will have to remember to wear glasses next time. Broadway and downtown was empty this morning – made for a great ride in!

rider
rider
13 years ago

Willamette blvd out near the bridge had a few inches of snow. I hit a patch of ice covered by snow on a side slope and went down. Felt a little special and my helmet paid for itself. Shortly after I saw two cars hit the guard rail on the bridge by Freddies. Once I got into N. Portland it was largely clear all the way to the Hawthorne. I was definitely riding slower than others due to my literal pain in the butt.

Keith
13 years ago

They cancelled school for this ?

Damn.

Keith
13 years ago

Radio is not taking reservations because of the weather… am flying back to where the windrows are 4 feet deep on the roadside today.

Will be missing this crazy place until the next time.

Joe
Joe
13 years ago

Westside aka Wilsonville was a slush-fest.. I always love seeing my bike tire mark in the snow, along side the auto treads. 🙂 some of the packed areas r slick..
be safe all.. and have fun. ohh I was riding thru the grass near the water front this morning.

Tony H
Tony H
13 years ago

My thoughts as well, Keith and Jpdx. For this they canceled school? Someone might actually (gasp!) step in a half inch of snow. The horror! My commute was wonderful. I do have snow tires on the bike I rode, but I really didn’t need them.

Spiffy
13 years ago

sadly on SE Holgate cars were straddling the buffered bike lane even though the previous people driving over the bike lane cleared the snow revealed the lines on the road to the later traffic people still seemed afraid to make new tracks in the proper lane and continued following the black area instead of driving in the proper lane…

if they had striped the buffer line SOLID instead of DASHED there would be a lot less confusion on whether you should be driving there… right now where there’s any kind of whether on the ground it’s hard to tell the new paint is there and there’s always a random car accidentally driving in it until they realize it…

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
13 years ago

We moved here from Florida last summer. Mrs Dibbly is highly disappointed.

Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson
13 years ago

Photographing your own trespass onto railroad property is no way to ride to your destination, son…

Kelly
Kelly
13 years ago

Since school (and hence daycare) was closed I hauled both my kids in the chariot to a dr’s apt via bike. Absolutely no issues in inner NE for me.

MarkDavisPDX
MarkDavisPDX
13 years ago

Not quite near enough for my work to close down. I rent trucks, our location has a steep incline down to get into the it, thus if it freezes or heavy snows we shut down rather than having customers slide barely up the hill, then back down to crash into our building. Plus, chains aren’t allowed on any company’s rental vehicles or trucks.

I have wisdom tooth removal tomorrow morning. Part of me hopes it snows a ton to miss it, the pain I’m feeling right now though means I’ll probably bear whatever ice there is to get the suckers yanked out.

Paolo
Paolo
13 years ago

It is funny that yesterday on Mt. Tabor, one of the only place with some snow on the ground, I got delivered, by bike, a package from the office of transportation. it was an envelope with a bell for my daughter bike and some maps.
Awesome.