2A — THE OBSERVER
TuESday, NOVEmBER 3, 2020
LOCAL/REGION
Daily Batten down the hatches for cold, snowy winter
Planner
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 3,
the 308th day of 2020. There
are 58 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY
On Nov. 3, 1936, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt won
a landslide election victory
over Republican challenger
Alfred “Alf” Landon.
ON THIS DATE
In 1900, the first auto-
mobile show in the United
States opened at New York’s
Madison Square Garden un-
der the auspices of the Auto-
mobile Club of America.
In 1911, the Chevrolet
Motor Car Co. was founded
in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet
and William C. Durant. (The
company was acquired by
General Motors in 1918.)
In 1964, President Lyndon
B. Johnson soundly defeat-
ed Republican Barry Gold-
water to win a White House
term in his own right.
In 1970, Salvador Allende
was inaugurated as presi-
dent of Chile.
In 1979, five Communist
Workers Party members
were killed in a clash with
heavily armed Ku Klux
Klansmen and neo-Nazis
during an anti-Klan protest
in North Carolina.
In 1986, the Iran-Con-
tra affair came to light as
Ash-Shiraa, a pro-Syrian
Lebanese magazine, first
broke the story of U.S. arms
sales to Iran.
In 1992, Democrat Bill
Clinton was elected the
42nd president of the United
States, defeating Presi-
dent George H.W. Bush.
In Illinois, Democrat Carol
Moseley-Braun became the
first Black woman elected to
the U.S. Senate.
In 1994, Susan Smith of
Union, South Carolina, was
arrested for drowning her
sons, Michael and Alex,
nine days after claiming the
children had been abducted
by a Black carjacker.
In 2004, President
George W. Bush claimed a
re-election mandate a day
after more than 62 million
Americans chose him over
Democrat John Kerry;
Kerry conceded defeat in
make-or-break Ohio rather
than launch a legal fight
reminiscent of the conten-
tious Florida recount of four
years earlier.
In 2014, 13 years after
the 9/11 terrorist attack, the
resurrected World Trade
Center opened for business,
an emotional milestone for
New Yorkers and the nation.
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $3.8 million
5-18-23-37-40-44
Mega Millions: $118 million
14-19-34-39-59 —11 x2
Powerball: $127 million
2-6-40-42-55—PB-24 x3
Win for Life: Oct. 31
12-20-24-32
Pick 4: Nov. 1
• 1 p.m.: 4-9-2-7
• 4 p.m.: 0-1-4-5;
• 7 p.m.: 3-3-3-1
• 10 p.m.: 0-6-2-2
Pick 4: Oct. 31
• 1 p.m.: 3-6-3-2
• 4 p.m.: 0-6-2-7
• 7 p.m.: 4-9-8-1
• 10 p.m.: 7-6-6-4
Pick 4: Oct. 30
• 1 p.m.: 2-3-9-8
• 4 p.m.: 5-6-8-0;
• 7 p.m.: 3-6-0-3
• 10 p.m.: 0-0-2-3
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer,
please call 541-963-3161.
By Ellen Morris Bishop
For EO Media Group
SALEM — Brace your-
selves for a stormy, cold
winter. A relatively mild
November may lure North-
east Oregon into compla-
cency, but in late December
and all of January, storms
will come, winds will blow
and snow will fall.
“Last winter was sort of
a ‘nothing-burger,’” said
Pete Parsons, an Oregon
Department of Agriculture
meteorologist. “This winter
is going to come with extra
mayonnaise.”
With colder water tem-
peratures in the tropical
Pacific, weather is moving
into La Nina conditions,
which promise wetter
and colder winters in the
Pacific Northwest, Rocky
Mountains and the Great
Plains. Parsons is basing
his forecast on the analog
winters of 1959-60, 1970-
71, and 1995-96 when El
Nino (warm water in the
tropical Pacific) shifted to
La Nina (cold water in the
tropical Pacific).
“The first year you
move out of El Nino and
into a La Nina tends to be
pretty volatile in the Pacific
Northwest,” Parsons said.
“It’s cold and snowy. You
tend to get more mountain
snow than normal. Look
for a very different winter
than we’ve had for the past
two (winters).
“We’re moving towards
a colder signal in the
Pacific Decadal Oscil-
Phil Wright/The Observer, File
Jeremy Jones and his children Jeremiah and Kylie shovel their driveway Wednesday,
Feb. 5, 2020, in La Grande during the midst of the big snow storm that moved over the
region and prompted local school closures. Weather is moving into La Nina conditions,
which promise a wetter and colder winter in the Pacific Northwest.
lation. That will make it
colder than it’s been for the
last seven years or so.”
The winter of 2016-17
was a La Nina year, Par-
sons noted, and we could
have similar conditions this
year.
But, Parsons said, cli-
mate change has also
resulted in warmer waters
in the northern Pacific that
add some uncertainty to
the seasonal forecast, he
said.
For November, Par-
sons sees mild tempera-
tures and normal precipi-
tation in Northeast Oregon
due to high-pressure ridges
developing over the Pacific
Northwest.
“In El Nino years, like
the last two winters, we
tend to get cold weather
early in the season,” he
said. “But in La Nina
years, the protective ridge
over us develops in the
fall then goes away, and so
we get cold temperatures
descending on us later in
the season. La Ninas start
out mild, but just wait
until January. That’s when
we can have some really
cold weather.”
His long-term forecast
for this winter shows that
in December, the protective
high-pressure ridge begins
to weaken, allowing the jet
stream to direct more cold
Arctic air our way.
“That’s a stormy pat-
tern, and it will drive more
storms our way.” Parsons
said. “December is likely
to be stormier than normal,
with lower snow levels
than normal.”
That means, he said,
the start of a good winter
snowpack, with near- or
above-average snowfall in
the mountains.
“It’s likely that cold-air
outbreaks will hold off
until after Christmas,” Par-
sons said. “From about
that point through January
is the prime slot for really
cold weather.”
In January, with the pro-
tective high-pressure ridge
moving to the west over
the Pacific, Parsons expects
periods of cold and pos-
sibly frigid weather.
“There’s cold air
dumps, really significant
ones, that are almost cer-
tainly going to occur,”
he said. “The question is
whether they dump into the
Northern Plains and into
the Rockies, or move west
over us. We are almost
always going to get at least
one Arctic event into the
Pacific Northwest.”
There is a good chance
of overall below-average
temperatures in January.
“It’s possible that we
would have multiple out-
breaks of Arctic air, and
the one or more could ‘lock
up’ over us,” Parsons said.
Winter weather could
also include windstorms
and rain-on-snow flood
events, though those are
more likely on the west
side of the state.
“Doesn’t that make it
interesting?” Parsons said.
“Would you want the same
thing every year? La Nina
makes for some really vol-
atile weather. So batten
down the hatches.”
Tai chi at the Summerville grange brings better balance
A new 3-month
course starts Nov. 9
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
SUMMERVILLE —
It’s not something you see
every day. A knight in
armor led a cowgirl and
others in Halloween cos-
tumes through the flowing
movements of an ancient
Chinese art Friday, Oct.
30, at Summerville’s
Pleasant Grove Grange.
Summerville resi-
dent Laura Zambrano was
wrapping up a Tai Chi:
Moving for Better Balance
session, a twice-a-week
class she leads on the front
lawn of the grange.
While the three-month-
long class concluded
Friday, she is not waiting
to get people moving
again. She said a new
round of classes begins
Monday, Nov. 9, at 11 a.m.
and will continue every
Monday and Friday. The
classes work to improve
balance and coordination
and are beneficial for all
ages.
Tai chi is a Chinese
exercise that incorporates
breathing, body movement
and meditation. The Sum-
merville class focused on
a simplification of one of
Sabrina Thompson/The Observer
Laura Zambrano dresses as a knight to lead her tai chi class, which also donned cos-
tumes for Halloween, on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, at the Summerville Pleasant Grove Grange.
A new round of classes begins Nov. 9.
the styles of tai chi. Zam-
brano also teaches a tai chi
class at the Grande Ronde
Retirement and Assisted
Living.
“The elderly need exer-
cise the most,” Zambrano
said. “This year, with
COVID, the elderly are
unable to go anywhere or
do much exercise. And this
is a type of movement spe-
cifically to (help prevent)
elders from falling.”
Zambrano’s first round
of the outdoor classes in
Summerville began in
August. During the course
she taught her students
eight forms of tai chi,
which the class eventually
learned to blend into a con-
tinuous flowing movement.
“I’ve seen improve-
ments in their confidence
over the three months,”
Zambrano said of class
participants. “One of
Sheriff’s office provides details
of deadly Hermiston shooting
By Jade McDowell
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — An alterca-
tion between four males resulted
in the shooting death of two of
them and a gunshot wound to
a third, according to Umatilla
County Sheriff Terry Rowan.
Rowan said at 8:18 p.m. on
Thursday, Oct. 29, dispatch
received a call from Alejandro
Madrigal of Umatilla stating he
and his father, Jaime Madrigal,
had been in an altercation with
Raymon Rios and Hugo Mad-
rigal-Leon on Sagebrush Road
near Bensel Road outside Herm-
iston. According to Rowan, Ale-
jandro said Jaime had been shot
and Alejandro had shot Rios and
Madrigal-Leon in self-defense.
Law enforcement arrived to
find Raymond Ryan Rios, 18,
and Hugo Madrigal-Leon, 19,
both of Hermiston, dead. Rowan
said Jaime was treated at the
hospital for a gunshot wound,
and Alejandro had some injuries
stemming from the initial alter-
cation. They cooperated with
law enforcement.
He said the sheriff’s office,
Umatilla Morrow Major Crime
Team, the Oregon State Police
Forensics Lab and Umatilla
County District Attorney still
were investigating and “sorting
things out” in regards to who
shot whom, but it appeared Ale-
jandro’s assertion he had shot
Rios and Madrigal-Leon was
correct.
Rowan said at this time he
was not aware of whether the
shooting had any connections
to other shootings earlier in the
year.
The deadly encounter repre-
sented the fourth and fifth pos-
sible homicide deaths in or just
outside of Hermiston this year.
Law enforcement also
has reported at least four
drive-by shootings of vehicles
or homes where no one was
injured, and in August a man
was seriously injured in a
shooting in the parking lot of
the Hermiston Safeway.
Hermiston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston said the pandemic
has caused such unusual cir-
cumstances this year that it is
hard to consider crime statistics
from 2020 and previous years an
“apples to apples” comparison.
Overall, however, reported
crime in Hermiston for the
first three quarters of 2020 has
dropped by 32% compared
with the same period in 2019,
and violent crime is down 23%,
according to records Edmiston
provided the East Oregonian.
But the increase in shooting
incidents in the area compared
to recent years is an unfortunate,
serious development, he said.
The third-quarter crime
report shows either one or zero
homicides or attempted homi-
cides each year in Hermiston
from 2011 to 2019. FBI data
going back even further shows
the same trend of one or zero
homicides per year reported by
HPD going back to 2009.
my favorite things about
teaching the class has
been seeing their faces so
happy. They never missed
a class.”
The class of four stu-
dents, all Summerville res-
idents, would meet outside
the grange for an hour to
go through the forms. The
outdoor location and space
allowed for proper social
distancing and fresh air.
Zambrano said the next
set of classes will con-
tinue to be outside as long
as the weather permits. To
allow for proper social dis-
tancing, she limits class
sizes to nine students.
Susan Hoyt said she
enjoys the class because it
is a different form of regi-
mented exercise.
“I joined because I
thought it would be fun
and a good way to see
friends you don’t see very
often because we all get
too busy,” she said. “And
since it is outside, it is a
safe way to meet people
and get together.”
Carol Messinger, a
former dancer, said she
appreciates having a way
to continue moving even if
she can’t dance anymore.
She said the class has
given her a better sense
of how to use her body
correctly.
“For me it was a chal-
lenge getting here and
doing (the) movement,”
student Jacque Lee said.
“It was a fun challenge to
rise up to.”
Zambrano taught the
class in collaboration with
Community Connection
of Northeast Oregon. The
nonprofit provided a guide-
book for each student to
practice their movements
and meditations at home.
News briefs
BMTD hires office
assistant as McHaddad
deals with health issue
LA GRANDE — The Blue
Mountain Translator District
hired an office assistant Saturday,
Oct. 31, to assist the organiza-
tion’s executive director, Alex
McHaddad, as he recovers from a
health issue.
Curtis Carson will take on some
of McHaddad’s workload for the
next two pay periods, which will
run through Nov. 25. McHaddad,
who is suffering from a respiratory
condition, will continue to handle
management duties. McHaddad,
who also is running for mayor of
La Grande, said he has been tested
for COVID-19, and his test was
negative.
The Blue Mountain Translator
District is a government entity
that provides over-the-air televi-
sion signals in Union and Baker
counties.
OTEC announces
scholarship opportunities
BAKER CITY — Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative announced
in a press release it would begin
accepting applications for a
number of academic scholarships
on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The scholarships include $5,000
awards available to high school
students, returning college stu-
dents and adults entering educa-
tional or technical programs. The
cooperative also announced four
incoming Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity freshmen will have the oppor-
tunity to have their entire four
years of tuition and fees paid for
if they commit to attend and grad-
uate from EOU.
In addition, the cooperative
will award two scholarships to
attend lineman school and four to
attend trade school, for $5,000 and
$2,500, respectively.
“We are committed to helping
our future leaders grow and
our scholarship program is one
way we recognize our responsi-
bility to support the communi-
ties we serve,” Joe Hathaway, the
cooperative’s communications
manager, stated in the release.
“OTEC is proud to once again
sponsor these educational oppor-
tunities for members and their
families in Baker, Grant, Harney
and Union counties.”
Applications for the scholar-
ships are due Jan. 31, 2021. Addi-
tional information can be found at
otec.coop/scholarships.
— The Observer