Try to Remember
Those Days in November...

Winters can be brisk in Portland, too. The Portland airport has recorded -3F before. The main difference between lowland western Washington (away from the saltwater banana belt) and the Willamette Valley is the hotter summers of the Valley.

Our city recorded 30.54" total rainfall for the month...unfortunately, a portion of that ended up in my basement on Nov 6th :)

I haven't had a chance to do a thorough garden inspection yet, only having been out long enough to spray deer repellent today - the day after they appeared for some night time rose browsing. I do have a broken melianthus in a container on my deck (snow weight) but nothing else that's obvious so far. My grass is growing and looks like it could stand cutting.

We ended up with 15 7/8 inch of rain in November. Also about a foot of snow which still covers the garden. It was such a gloomy month -- watching the level in the rain gauge was the most exciting thing in the garden! It is still so cold that the snow is melting very slowly and refreezing at night. The snow still sticks to our trees and shrubs. December has to be better.

Coldest temp. I recorded here was -5.9 C. or 21.3 F. and snowfall total was 7.5" inches. Give or take depending where on our island these numbers were recorded. Grace Point in town much less snow and only -5.4 C. Coldest November I recorded was in 1985. This one wasn't nice and the one in 1985 was much worse as far as minimum temps. go. It got down to -10 C. at St.Mary lake weatehr station here on SSI and approx. -14.5 C. at YVR 28 miles north east of here. Joe

morz8- my commiserations over your flooded basement situation. We bought a house with an undisclosed cracked concrete daylight basement foundation that leaked, and a concrete patio on the uphill side that sloped toward the house. DH used a concrete saw to cut away the concrete patio a few feet out from the house, then broke up the concrete with a sledge hammer, apparently causing him to have a hemorrhage in one eye. Ouch. We excavated the whole section and then we sealed the wall and put a plastic barrier on it. I also dug a trench all the way across the house to lead water away from the house before it got there.

Then we had another flooded basement because the dry well that the roof gutters emptied into was not draining. We put a long pipe on the end of the downspout to take the water out away from the house instead of into the dry well, and haven't had any more flooding. We ripped out our moldy carpet downstairs and put in ceramic tile in the bedroom and laminate floor in the family room. The laminate would be in trouble if flooded so we have to hope we have done enough. It is great for a dance floor!