It’s Not Your Imagination: This Has Been the Grimmest Winter Ever

Being still relatively new to town, and having made most of my trips here in fairer months, I just assumed the unrelenting run of cold days we’ve had since December was normal. Shitty and gray, but normal. And not too far off from the foreboding clucks of “Just you wait, California boy!” doom I heard all throughout August and September.

But hey, you know what? Turns out this winter has been decidedly ABNORMAL. It’s been colder—and wetter—than usual.

According to this story in the O, temperatures have yet to hit 60 degrees this year—breaking a record last set in 1955, when people shivered all the way until March 27 before the universe offered a little bit of mercy. Our last 60-degree day was all the way back in mid-December, and usually we might expect another one by February, sort of a midwinter’s taunt.

I don’t want to complain too much. After years in Northern California, I’m used to long months of chilly rain. And I grew up in Chicagoland, where a 60-degree day in February would be seen as a sign of the end.

But still I find myself unexpectedly hopeful after reading this: “But be patient, forecasters say: Portland could see at least 60 degrees on Wednesday.” Also, as I type this, I can hear a lawnmower, a sure sound of better days, in the distance.