Full Service with Icicles

Astoria, Oregon ~ February 7, 2014
Yesterday at 3:49 PM on Marine Drive.
Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Trolley Stop

Astoria, Oregon ~ December 9, 2013
This morning on the River Walk.
Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Blue Pot, First Snow

Astoria, Oregon ~ December 6, 2013
Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Three Days Ago

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 16, 2012

Today it's been raining like crazy and the warm(er) weather has blown in, so I thought I'd post a couple more photos from one of our snow days. It's always interesting to me to see the snow on a riverfront scene.

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Snow Day #2

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 17, 2012

This is Harrison Street (with snow) at 11th Street (no snow). Eleventh street gets more traffic, and it gets the gravel as well. I took this at about 11:00 this morning.

By early afternoon there were still traces of snow in Astoria, but not that much. I guess it says something about Astoria's winter weather that the grass and azalea bush at the post office are this green in January.

I took this photo on a teeny street called Flavel that comes off of Bond Street. It's as wide as an alley and about half a block long. By tonight all the slush and water may be slick and frozen. Then again, it may just rain a lot. The weather report says there's 100% chance of precipitation tomorrow, and the temperature as I write this at 4:15 p.m. is 35 degrees. While we slop around in cold, damp streets with fading snow, Seattle, about three hours north and east, is bracing for enough of the white stuff to seriously derail their travel plans.

Here's another photo from yesterday along the River Walk facing the stoplight at 14th Street.

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Snow on the River Walk

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 16, 2012

Here's what the River Walk at 15th Street looked like at 12:31 p.m. today. We get so little snow in Astoria that streets are not maintained the way they are in places where it snows all the time. Many of us just hunker down and enjoy it through the windows.

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Plenty of Snow on Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood from Government Camp, Oregon ~ June 4, 2011

About 3 hours' drive from Astoria

On June 4th, I drove up to the high desert, and was surprised by how cold it still was over the pass. It was cold even in a sweatshirt when I got out of the car, and snow was still piled maybe 8 or so feet deep where it had been plowed into drifts near some of the buildings. With the zoom, you can see how much snow is waiting to melt among Mt. Hood's crags. There has already been a lot of flooding along Oregon's rivers. I don't know if there's any noticeable rise here in Astoria for those who observe these things more carefully than I do. I haven't noticed whether the river has been higher or not, as it isn't noticeable from my perspective. Does anyone know if it's a fraction of an inch, or maybe even inches this far downriver?

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Snow on Saddle Mountain

Warrenton, Oregon ~ April 10, 2010

You can see Saddle Mountain from various points on the south side of Astoria (the Young's Bay side) and from the area around Young's Bay in Warrenton, just across the bay from Astoria. I don't remember seeing snow on it like this before, at least not this late in the year. Or was I not paying attention?

I've hiked to the top a couple of times, and I wonder if I'll do it again this year. There's a very good walking trail most of the way, although it gets slippery near the top. If I go, of course I will share the photos!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

More snow, December 18, 2008

December 18, 2008

Don't you love the day-glo green? I do. Especially in near white-out conditions. Two river pilots are either going to or coming from work. It's a nice day to go out on the water in a small boat and climb a ladder onto a ship, yes? They laughed a friendly greeting when they saw me taking their picture. The location is the River Walk at 15th Street, just outside my store. That's Marine Drive where you can see headlights and cars.
The weather on December 18th was truly chaotic, with snow one minute, hail the next, then sun and blue skies, then snow, then hail again. I couldn't help running outside with my camera every few minutes, and if you'd like to see the results, I posted about it that day on my personal blog.

Silent night

By Daryl Moore ~ December 20, 2008

Daryl sent me this photo to use on the blog. It's another photo of the big snow we had last December. It looks cozy inside, doesn't it?

December 23, 2008 - Snow in Astoria

Today, December 23, 2009, it's chilly with a lot of sun between the clouds. Recently we've had several days on end of below-freezing weather, and we've had lots of rain, but we haven't had them at the same time, so we haven't had snow. Maybe we'll have some this year and maybe not. Last year we had more snow than I've ever seen in Astoria. Some years since my arrival in 2001, we've had none at all. Last December 23rd was our 7th day in a row with snow on the ground. I thought I would make a post of my photos from one year ago today. I took photos on each of our snow days, and I'll probably post some of them over this holiday season. It's always fun to see the snow here because it's so rare and of course, it makes everything look so different.

The first photo is Harrison Street looking toward 11th. I was on foot all day because it was fun, I wanted to take pictures, and also my summer tires were not prepared for this. The next photo is the fountain in front of the red house on the right.

Here's the fountain. On the left were roses with ice on them. I took a picture of a bright yellow rose covered with ice and snow, but it was badly out of focus.

The camera really doesn't show you how steep this hill is on 12th Street. It's one of the steepest grades in town, although the steep grade here is only a block long. At the top is the foot path through the trees and vines that is an extension of 12th Street. The lovely green Italianate Victorian house at the end of that post is hidden behind the buildings on the right.

Some Christmas decorations downtown on Commercial Avenue. In the next few days, I'll show more downtown snow pictures.

No fake snow this year. The building is Hughes-Ransom Mortuary. When I was looking up their name in the phone book, the next ad I saw read, "Bad Smells? Too Much Dust?" Quickly I made sure I wasn't under the same heading. Uh, nope. It was Furnaces. Moving right along. . . .

Here I'm walking along Exchange Avenue toward 11th. The bit of yellow you see at the top with spires is the First Presbyterian Church, shown in an earlier post.

As I said, the plants were not expecting this snow with its melting and freezing days following . . .

. . . although the holly was probably happy about the weather.

It was fun to see how people approached this unusual condition in Astoria. The crows were always interesting, too. They seemed to be everywhere, because of course now we could see them - animated black against the white.

Now back to the Columbia River. I'm standing near the River Walk at the front of the Maritime Museum looking toward the Astoria-Megler Bridge, the radio tower, and the general downtown area.

Here's the River Walk just past the Maritime Museum. You can see the river between the trees and the tracks of the Riverfront Trolley.

Near where the last photo was taken. It was eerie to see the ships with snow for a foreground and background. One can almost imagine they're sailing through the Arctic. The building on the right is the old train station.

Here's the view looking up Coxcomb Hill vaguely in the direction of the Astoria Column.

Today it's chilly and the ground is till partly wet from the huge downpours we've had the past few weeks, but so far there is no snow in Astoria, nor on the mountains across the river in Washington.