The blanket of snow In Eugene.
Including the EMU Courtyard
(above), provided University se
nior Angela Martin (right) a
chance to cross country ski out
side the education building.
■Photos by
Jeff Paslay
Undeclared Irishman Alaxa Tlpal brushes snow and lea from her car
Saturday morning altar snow tail Friday night
Heavy snow returns;
state back to normal
PORTLAND (AP) — People
who have lived in the state for
decades say the snow that has
barreled into Western Oregon
this winter just means things
am getting beck to normal
Oregon, the driest state in the
Northwest this summer, now
boasts its most robust mountain
snowpack
"We've had a lot of really
mild winters, but now we've
gone l)ac.k to what we used to
have." said Sue Hogland. t>0. of
Molalla.
"My husband was a high
school wrestling coach years
ago. and when I traveled with
the team, it wasn't at all unusu
al for us not to be able to get
back after a match t>ecause of
snow," she said.
"But especially there were
silver thaws Rain and cold
temperatures would put a half
inch of ice on the roads," she
said. "We don't have those
mui h anymore."
Hogland remembered return
ing from Silverton to Molalla
after one match when a silver
thaw sent the 40-passenger bus
sliding off the road "We went
into a field, and the bus turned
over in a ditch,” she said "Ev
eryone landed on the ceiling,
hut nobody was injured
Gin Mathews, (4. of Mood
River, remembers the winter ol
1971-72, "when we had proba
bly accumulated five or six
inches on the valley floor that
stayed for five or six days and
the temperatures were in the
teens. And then it reallv
snowed. maybe a foot, and the
warm Chinook winds came to
melt it. and the whole valley
was flooded.”
Susan Hartley, 37, remembers
that her first Christmas in Port
land in the mid-1980s was a
white one.
"Our car was absolutely bur
ied in snow. It was about three
days before it melted, and then
it started all over again in Feb
ruary," she said. "This year
isn't unusual."
State Climatologist George*’
Taylor agrees.
Taylor, who is based at Ore
gon State University in Corval
lis. is predicting this winter
will (mi about normal. Forecast
ers commonly define normal as
the average of the past 30 years.
For instance. Corvallis has re
ceived an average of 17 inches
of precipitation for the three
months ending Dec. 31, and
this year's total is lfi inches.
"Corvallis is typical of the rest
of the Willamette Valley, which
gets 40 inches per year and is
on target for getting that." Tay
lor said.
Taylor analyzes Oregon's
weather patterns using data
from more than 300 locations
throughout the state.
Snowfall for Portland has av
eraged 7.3 inches during the
past 50 years, said George Mill
er of the National Weather Ser
vice. So far this year. 4.6 inches
have coated the city. On Dec
16, the day Portland’s big snow
left motorists Stymied in traffu
jams for hours, only 1 4 inches
fell.
The hefty snowpack has state
officials i autiously optimistic
that the li**ginning ot the end of
the drought may lie in sight
"The snow picture looks very
good." said Stan Fox. who
compiles snowpack measure
ments from 141) sites for the
U S. Soil and Conservation Ser
vice.
1
CLOSURE
Continued from Page 1
reasonable number of f.n ully.
si,if! and students i nine to the
campus and do their work
without jeopardizing their per
sonal safety
The situation at the Univer
sity is different titan that of the
lower school districts. Wil
liams said, because of the
amount of research that m»‘s
on at tIt** University, the need
to keep the steam plant opera!
itig, and provide food and
shelter for the it.-(H) students
who live on campus.
“You can't evaluate the de
(ision solely in terms of i tin
students got into the class
room." Williams said "It’s .1
little more complicated than
that "
A memo sent to faculty and
staff In University Director of
Human Servii.es Linda King
encourages supervisors to
"roeogni/e the difficulties" the
stringent closure polit v has on
l 'niversitv employees
The memo asks supervisors
to respond with"flexibilit\
including allowing people in
volved in "non-essential"
work to remain at home, or al
lowing parents to bring their
children to work with them.
University students who dis
agree with the tit* ision to keep
the i umpus open can be thank
ful times have changed since
the turn of the century when
i atnpus was closed several
times because of epidemics
University Art hivist Keith
Kh hard said the spread of ty
phoid and other diseases was a
great cause for concern in the
early 1900s
"in '.tH. Thanksgiving was
canceled because of a flu epi
dcmi< Kii hard said "(The
administration) just told the
students the\ were not going
home lor Thanksgiving, and
they w ent on w ith classes."
--' —*---1
The campus was hit with about three teet of snow in 1969. caus
ing the University to dose for three days.