Silver Thaw of 2012

The snow took a while to arrive this winter, but January tried to make up for lost time. While the overall accumulation of snow was not particularly noteworthy for this area, several characteristics combined to produce a storm event that will be remembered for years to come.

It started on Sunday, January 15. The snow came down pretty heavy at times and continued to fall over the next several days. By Thursday, we had around 27" of compacted snow on the ground.

Snow accumulation by Thursday

Wednesday gave us our first taste of what this storm truly had in store for us. We experienced our first power outage, lasting approximately 4 hours. The next day brought a second one, this time only half as long. After the power came back that second time, Corinne scrambled to do laundry and run the dishwasher, just in case. That readiness paid off. Later that same evening, the power went out again. And this time, it would be out for over 5 days.

Going without power for a day or two is a fun adventure. We cooked on the wood stove. Anders played by headlamp. We sang songs around the piano. We enjoyed the romance of the candles.

Speaking of candles, we never really appreciated why there are so many different types. Votives can create a nice atmosphere, but tapers produce MUCH more useful light. Because tapers light from above, they do a better job of lighting a work space or dinner table. I'm sure this was obvious to everyone in the 17th century.

Mike's headlamp (high) and Anders' headlamp (low) zipping around in the darkness.

On Friday, freezing rain added about 1/2 inch of ice to everything. Conditions became so bad that Insitu even closed its facilities, which is a first in the 7.5 years that we've been here! The ice sure was beautiful.

Saturday morning, we were hopeful that power would be restored, but then we started to hear the noises coming from outside. With the power out and no one on the roads, we had the perfect conditions for listening to mother nature. The temperature warmed and the wind picked up, sending ice, snow and snapped branches crashing to the ground. The noise was so loud that we thought the trees themselves were falling. After listening to that commotion, our hopes for the return of power disappeared.

On the plus side, all of that time at home with no power to distract gave us ample opportunity to play outside in the snow.

By Saturday night we had started to tire of oatmeal for breakfast (on the wood stove) and grilled cheese and soup (on the wood stove.) So Mike went all out and we had ground beef tacos (on the wood stove). The beef didn't brown terribly well, but it was a nice change of pace.

Sunday morning we were finally ready to give in. Power had been restored to White Salmon on the previous day, and the hot water and electric stove at Donna's house were calling to us. On our way out we passed a series of utility trucks working right down the street from us, so we briefly flirted with the idea that we would be getting power back that day. But a quick chat with the flagger dispensed with that idea, and we continued on to White Salmon.

It would be several more days before our power returned. During that time, the snow continued to fall. Every other day during that time we would return to Trout Lake early in the morning to clear whatever snow had accumulated and light a fire in the woodstove. We lost track of the total accumulation.

This storm was even given an official name, the Silver Thaw of 2012. The aftermath of the Silver Thaw will take quite a while to clean-up, with downed trees and branches lining the roadsides. The consensus among many of the long-time Trout Lake residents is that there hasn't been a storm with this impact since the late 60's.

All in all, we didn't have things too bad. We had friends who were without power for 7 and 8 days! There were also many without water and heat. Our domestic water is gravity fed Trout Lake town water, so we don't rely on an electric well pump for water. We have a wood stove that can provide heat. And we borrowed a small generator for a day so that we could keep our upright freezer sufficiently cold.

If we were afraid of a little snow and ice, we wouldn't have moved here in the first place!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders