You haven't heard much from me lately, because winter in the Northwest is very tranquil compared to the lands east of the Mississippi. However, sometimes we do have high winds across the San Juan Islands in winter. Read about the perils of serving the island residents in adverse weather -- from barge services to medical emergencies in the past and present. Imagine trying to reach one of the northwesternmost islands in a high wind and sea -- a day when the sea surges clear over the top of a commercial barge, or when a passenger boat like the Christmas ship cannot even dock at some ports. Readers and visitors tend to forget that the San Juan Islands are, after all, within the Salish Sea, a North Pacific Ocean inlet recently renamed from Puget Sound in some circles.
The past winter weather has featured unusually warm temperatures, however, and it has been shirtsleeve weather, not unlike spring or fall in the San Juans. The Columbia River through Washington State has been similarly blessed, while a few decades ago, a ship above The Dalles had to tie up on shore because of icing in the river, even swift-flowing as it was. The tale is described in The Columbia River saga(both San Juan Islands and this book published by Caxton).
My aim in writing for book publication is to tell the stories of regular people and their triumphs and problems, setting the stage for their lives within the world around them. I include lightly the politics and governmental matters of the areas in order to put the lives of regular people in perspective. I would write about the problems of sea lions that hang around the base of salmon passages over dams to seize fish, rather than the deliberations of a legislature. You can imagine yourself, the reader, traveling these interesting waters as, say, captain of a ship or a crew member on a tug or an operator of a bulldozer (as in still another NW book on Stevens Pass construction through the North Cascades).
The winds do not rage all the days, of course, and winter days can feature dead calm waters around the islands and sun warming the average days to 50-55 degrees, 40 at night. Yes, November-March constitute the rainy season, with totally dry summers most often. Except for certain coastal mountain ranges the usual annual rainfall is about 33 inches in Bellingham, and only about 20-25 on the eastern half of Washington. The NW's reputation for rain stems from the fact that our rain falls within the winter rainy period and is not spread out over the whole year, as is the case most places.
Enough education about our Northwest weather! Good luck to all of you who struggle this year with unusually heavy snow! I am headed out to play nine holes of golf on a soggy course, packing an umbrella in my golf bag, just in case......
