In December 1805, after making the first transcontinental land crossing by white man, Lewis and Clark decided to overwinter at a location south of present day Astoria (see letter A on map).
They called their collection of log buildings, Fort Clatsop, and remained there until late March 1806 (see artist rendering).
Unfortunately, they learned rapidly that they had picked one of wettest, dampest lowland places in North America, with plenty of wind to make things even more unpleasant They were miserable, as their comments on December 16, 1805 made clear: "The rain continues, with Tremendious gusts of wind. The winds violent. Trees falling in every direction, whorl winds, with gusts of rain. Hail & Thunder, This kind of weather lasted all day, Certainly one of the worst days that ever was!"
Frequent comments included: "we are all wet and disagreeable," "cold and a dreadful day," and, "the rain continued as usual"
If only they had a meteorologist with them! Consider the Oregon annual rainfall map (see image). They had camped in a location that receives about 100 inches a year, most of it falling during the midwinter period in which they camped. Not a good choice. If only they had made camp near Portland, they could have found a location with roughly a third as much rain, and considerably less wind.
Of the 106 days the Corps of Discovery spent on the coast only twelve were free of rain and only six were sunny. I suspect they knew they had picked a very wet location, but wanted to be near the ocean where they would have a chance to interact with a passing ship. Perhaps they hoped for a ride to Hawaii.And one more thing: only a few miles from Fort Clatsop there is Cape Disappointment, the foggiest location in the lower 48 states, with 106 days of heavy fog a year. So they were wet, fogged in, and we haven't have talked about the strong winter winds of the area. Not your winter vacation spot.
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| Typical (foggy) conditions at Cape Disappointment |
Here is forecast surface chart for 10 AM this morning. You can see the low (solid lines are pressure) off the southern WA coast, and the temperatures (at around 2500 ft, shown by shading) indicated the cold air over eastern Washington and cool air over the western WA lowlands.
This is NOT going to be big snow event. Here is the model forecast from this morning, showing the 24-h total snowfall prediction over the region. Not more than about 1-2 inches in the most favored zones. Nothing over the Seattle Metro area (sorry, Jim Forman). Portland gets some white stuff.
But one piece of good news...after this low moves south of us, expect a lot of sun on Tuesday. New Year's will start on a bright foot...an excellent omen for the new year.
winds in the Gorge, with some "favored" spots hitting 70-80 mph. One of the windiest places is the Vista House at Crown Point, where recent gusts have hit 78 mph, with sustained winds in the 40+ mph range (see graphic).
But we can go further. December 2012 is tied for darkest December with December 2007. So December 2012 was as bad as we have seen during this century! That is enough to give nearly anyone a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and turn on their interior floodlights.
But there bright, lustrous` news..today January 1 is virtually clear over much of western Washington and Oregon. Don't believe me? Look outside or check out the latest image from my department's web cam looking towards Mt. Rainier.
Some of you near the water have some fog right now, but most of that will burn off. Only those in the fog/stratus laden basin of eastern Washington will be denied the sun's face.