B6 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, DECEmBER 3, 2022
COFFEE BREAK
Elderly pair’s connection ruffles feathers for some
room and nicely bids her a good night.
They reach for one another’s hands to
hold while talking about their departed
spouses and are a source of great com-
fort for each other. I learned about this
friendship from facility staff, so I had
time to digest it alone before talking
with my mother about it.
At first, I was nervous because I did
not want her to be hurt. But I quickly
realized that this relationship is very
good for both of them, as they share
similar histories and circumstances.
Mom has recently found out that
this man’s daughters are upset about
their friendship, and she feels badly
about it. She says she would never do
anything to hurt him. I’ve told her she
needs to give his daughters time to
DEAR ABBY: Two and a half years
ago we lost my dad, who was 94. He
and Mom had been married 72 years.
She entered assisted living right before
COVID — with all its difficulties —
set in. We made it through that, we’re
all vaccinated now and her facility has
opened back up.
Mom has met and befriended a
similarly aged widower. They eat to-
gether, walk, attend activities and en-
joy sitting and talking together every
day. He always walks her back to her
sister didn’t organize the event, send
out invitations or act as a hostess, I
thought her remark was out of line and
mean. She strongly disagrees. What do
you think? — SMALL-TOWN SIS IN IL-
LINOIS
DEAR SIS: Depending upon your
sister’s tone of voice (and degree of so-
briety) when she asked that question,
it may have come across as an expres-
sion of surprise or curiosity. However,
if it was asked in a hostile or accusatory
manner, I agree with you that it was out
of line and mean.
be able to help you.
DEAR ABBY: I come from a very
small town which has only one school.
My sister recently returned to attend
her 50th class reunion. It was very in-
formal and held in a local tavern. The
event was announced on social media,
but no formal invitations were sent
out.
When my sister spotted a man who
had graduated the following year, she
approached him and asked, “What are
you doing here? You didn’t graduate
with our class.” He answered that he
had participated in sports with a num-
ber of the graduates and wanted to see
them again.
Considering that the event was ca-
sual, held in a public place and that my
wrap their minds around their friend-
ship. Abby, what can I do to help the
daughters build trust in this situation?
— DELICATE SITUATION IN ARKANSAS
DEAR DELICATE SITUATION: Your
mother’s is not the first romance to
blossom in a situation like this, and it
won’t be the last. What has happened
is a blessing, and I hope the man’s
daughters will come to regard it as one.
Reaching out to them isn’t a bad idea, if
you think it may calm the situation and
you can do it without making them
more defensive than they already ap-
pear to be. The older folks are doing
nothing wrong. They have a right to be
happy in their remaining years. If there
is a religious adviser connected to the
assisted living facility, he or she might
█
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren,
also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded
by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear
Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box
69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
Weather
Continued from B1
Curious, I called up on my
phone the morning forecast
discussion from the National
Weather Service office in Boise,
which issues forecasts for Baker
County (the agency’s Pendle-
ton office handles the rest of
Northeastern Oregon).
The forecast discussion is
in effect the story behind the
familiar forecast with its terse
predictions of cloud and pre-
cipitation and temperature. In
the forecast discussion meteo-
rologists write a brief overview
(typically a few hundred to
several hundred words) of the
situation, including both what
the models say and what’s actu-
ally happening outside.
The discussion from the
Boise office on Thursday
morning included a term I
don’t recall seeing before in
that forum.
“A huge miss.”
At that point, the storm had
brought about half as much
snow as the models predicted.
To be fair, the Weather Ser-
vice’s meteorologists had noted,
a few days earlier, that the pre-
dicted pattern was conducive
to a significant rain shadow
effect that might severely limit
snow amounts in the valleys.
Yet as late as Tuesday, the
agency’s new snowfall predic-
tion system had a 73% chance
that 4 inches or more would
fall in Baker City.
A huge miss, indeed.
(Snow did finally fall, even
heavy at times, for a few hours
Thursday morning with the
arrival of a cold front. But the
accumulation was still sub-
stantially less than the fore-
casts from just two days earlier.
It was, however, rather more
snow than the models, appar-
ently chastened by their recent
exaggeration, had predicted
just the evening before. In
other words, the models first
forecast too much snow, then,
the next day, too little.)
Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is offering a $5 discount
on its 12-month parking permit.
State parks offer
discount on
parking permits
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
Moving snow from a downtown Baker City sidewalk during a previous winter.
But occasionally a forecast misses so badly — the equivalent to a punt that goes
sideways — that people are apt to notice. Such was the case this week when the latest
in a series of winter storms moved into Oregon.
The lesson here is that
weather is complicated.
This is hardly a revelation,
of course.
The track a storm takes, and
whether it brings rain or snow
or neither, depends on complex
interactions between thou-
sands of factors that can only
be estimated, but not measured
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
Just in time for the holi-
day season, the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department
is offering a $5 discount on its
12-month parking permit, low-
ering the regular cost from $30
to $25.
Holiday shoppers can pur-
chase the annual parking permit
between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31.
The pass is good for 12 months
starting in the month of pur-
chase.
it’s going to snow tomorrow, we
make sure the shovel is handy.
We’re rarely taken wholly by
surprise by inclement weather.
But occasionally, just as the
best punters sometimes drop
the snap or shank the kick, the
models are humbled by nature.
with anything like precision.
Computer weather mod-
els are far more sophisticated
than they were just a decade
ago, and the relative accuracy
of forecasts, even out to four or
five days, reflects this.
I think we’ve become accus-
tomed to this general reliability.
When the Weather Service says
█
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the Baker
City Herald.
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
34/43
Kennewick
30/41
St. Helens
33/39
26/30
26/33
34/38
35/40
Condon
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Considerable
cloudiness
Cloudy, p.m.
snow showers
A bit of morning
snow
A rain or snow
shower
Chilly with low
clouds
30 18
29 17
31 18
Eugene
0
0
0
31/43
34 22
34 27
35 21
0
0
0
La Grande
24 32 27
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
0
0
0
25 38 26
Comfort Index™
2
33 20
33 21
3
1
2
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 85°
Low: -13°
Wettest: 2.36”
38°
13°
39°
22°
40°
26°
0.01
0.01
0.03
6.45
8.24
0.19
0.19
0.07
14.23
15.59
0.31
0.31
0.14
27.29
22.32
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
50%
S at 6 to 12 mph
0.4
0.04
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
1% of capacity
31% of capacity
11% of capacity
27% of capacity
11% of capacity
14% of capacity
The Dalles
Crater Lake
Meacham
On Dec. 3, 1886, a storm dropped more
than a foot of snow from central Alabama
to the western Carolinas. Rome, Ga.,
received 25 inches, and Asheville, N.C.,
had 33 inches.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
7:13 a.m.
4:10 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
2:24 a.m.
SUN.
7:15 a.m.
4:10 p.m.
2:19 p.m.
3:34 a.m.
MOON PHASES
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
Burnt River near Unity
Umatilla River near Gibbon
Minam River at Minam
Powder River near Richland
OREGON
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Marathon, Fla.
Daniel, Wyo.
Paradise, Calif.
High: 47°
Low: 15°
Wettest: 0.51”
936 cfs
3 cfs
8 cfs
82 cfs
N.A.
46 cfs
Full
Dec 7
Last
Dec 16
New
Dec 23
Beaver Marsh
41/51
First
Dec 29
36/48
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
26/40
Paisley
25/36
29/38
Frenchglen
22/37
36/48
Klamath Falls
26/38
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Hi/Lo/W
43/35/pc
36/20/sn
35/25/sf
48/41/r
31/10/sn
50/35/sh
39/32/sh
35/25/sf
35/28/sf
43/32/sh
29/24/sf
30/28/sf
35/24/sf
34/25/sn
39/25/sn
28/22/sf
38/24/sn
34/18/sn
Hi/Lo/W
46/39/c
37/19/c
34/25/c
51/35/pc
29/14/c
51/36/c
44/34/c
32/22/c
37/23/sn
44/33/c
32/23/c
37/32/c
35/20/sn
33/22/c
35/19/c
30/22/pc
36/20/pc
30/14/c
28/40
Lakeview
25/34
McDermitt
23/38
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
Grand View
Arock
26/37
24/38
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
26/38
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
26/35
39/50
44/48
26/36
26/42
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
18/31
22/36
34/47
Ontario
25/36
Burns
Brothers
38/49
Roseburg
Huntington
28/37
Bend
Coos Bay
18/35
25/38
Seneca
22/36
Oakridge
Council
17/34
25/34
22/36
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
21/35
John Day
16/28
Sisters
Florence
Powers
22/38
Baker City
Redmond
36/44
39/49
Halfway
Granite
30/39
Newport
39/50
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
34/39
32/39
31/39
38/48
35 19
0
Corvallis
Enterprise
25/38
24/32
Monument
24/30
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
0
Elgin
23/35
La Grande
28/33
Maupin
Comfort Index™
18/25
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
18/28
Hood River
21/25
TIllamook
17 34 19
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
21/28
Vancouver
32/38
34/42
Baker City
Permits can be purchased
online through Oregon State
Parks store (stateparks.oregon.
gov). From the Visit dropdown
tab click Day Use Parking Per-
mits. Parking permits are also
available in Bend at REI and the
Visit Bend office, and in Sisters
at Bi-Mart.
Parking permits are required
at 25 Oregon state parks, in-
cluding Tumalo State Park and
Smith Rock State Park. Without
a permit, parking is $5 a day.
EO Media Group
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
28/24/sf
41/33/c
32/26/sf
48/32/sh
44/36/sh
39/28/pc
36/23/sf
29/25/sf
25/23/sf
38/34/c
51/35/sh
28/19/sn
48/34/sh
39/35/sh
24/17/sf
33/27/sf
33/24/sn
25/21/sf
Hi/Lo/W
30/28/sf
45/38/c
33/20/sn
44/32/pc
49/39/c
40/30/c
34/23/c
31/22/pc
31/20/i
40/36/c
53/37/pc
38/19/c
46/32/c
44/35/c
24/19/c
35/28/c
32/17/c
28/24/c
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Snow, 1-3”
A little snow
27
15
36
20
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
A little snow
Snow at times
31
24
40
24
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Cloudy, snow, 1-2”
A little p.m. snow
32
16
29
23
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
A little snow
P.M. snow showers
39
25
26
24
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
A little snow
P.M. snow showers
34
19
32
27