Transom, Weather
All week, the weather app on my phone has threatened apocalypse at the furthest range of the forecast: snow, temperatures in the teens. Meteorologists have been quick to temper with caveats: we don't know much that far out, it's unlikely in an el nino winter to have a snowstorm, etc. Living in the Midwest, you can see your weather coming: great colorful blobs moving eastward along the jet stream from the West Coast to appear as thunderstorms, blizzards, arctic blasts. Here, the weather moves silently across the Pacific, out of sight (I guess?) of weather satellites and all the vaguaries and mysteries of the Pacific, and we know about it a few days before it arrives. Snowstorms appear in Portland sometimes unannounced, sneak in and change their mind somewhere beyond the buoys and the city shuts down.The city panics, like most places that aren't used to regular snow. Life stops, busses rattle down the streets with chains on their tires, people cross country ski to the liquo...