THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2021 A13 Snowpack increases in Northeast Oregon Recent storms that brought rain to Baker City dumped snow in the mountains in Northeast Oregon at elevations above about 5,000 feet. In many places, the snowpack is now near aver- age and in some places above average. Snow in the region’s moun- tains is the largest reservoir of water for irrigation and recre- ation. This winter’s snowpack is particularly important because a drought in 2020 depleted reservoirs. As of Monday, Jan. 4, the wa- ter content in the snowpack at more than a dozen measuring sites in the Grande Ronde, Pow- der, Burnt and Imnaha river ba- sins was 93% of average. — Baker City Herald December Continued from A1 Low temperatures last month in Bend averaged 26.2 degrees, which was 3.5 de- grees above normal. A total of 21 days last month had a low temperature below 32 de- grees. On Dec. 29, the high temperature stayed below 32 degrees. The lowest temperature last month was 15 degrees on Dec. 23. The record daily low tem- perature was minus 25 degrees on Dec. 12, 1919. Bend recorded 0.74 inches of precipitation in Decem- ber, which was 1.46 inches above normal, according to the monthly climate summary. Measurable precipitation of at least 0.01 inches was re- corded on 12 days. The heavi- est was 0.18 inches reported A top Georgia elections of- ficial said Tuesday night that fewer than half of Georgia’s 159 counties had finished counting votes in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections. Gabriel Sterling also said the largest share of outstand- ing votes looks to be ballots cast early in DeKalb County, a Democratic stronghold. Sterling said as of about 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, 64 counties had finished count- ing absentee ballots, early in-person ballots and Elec- tion Day ballots. Most of them were smaller coun- ties. “It’s going to be a long night for all the campaigns here,” he said. The two runoff elections will determine which polit- ical party controls the U.S. Senate. Republican Kelly Loeffler was taking on Democrat Raphael War- nock, while Republican David Perdue was going up against Democrat Jon Ossoff. Democrats must win both races to take Senate control. Republicans only need to win one. — Associated Press BY ASHRAF KHALIL AND MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump de- scended on the nation’s capital Tuesday to cheer his baseless claims of election fraud a day before a congressional vote to affirm Joe Biden’s victory. Just blocks from the White House, protesters — many without masks — gathered in Freedom Plaza to decry the vote in the Electoral College. As temperatures dropped to the low 40s and a steady rain swept onto the streets, hundreds re- mained in the plaza into night- fall. Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin Todd Looby, executive director of BendFilm, and his team worked hard in 2020 to provide Central Oregon and the larger film community with ways to connect safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. BendFilm Continued from A1 “We live for getting people together in whatever way we can,” Looby said. “Creating community, creating a conver- sation around art and when people didn’t have that we re- alized they were really missing something so we weren’t gonna just not do anything and once we did these things people re- ally latched on.” While putting the 2020 fes- tival online and screening it through the pop-up drive-in may not have garnered the same amount of revenue that previous festivals have re- ceived, it did increase accessi- bility, Looby said. “We had people tuning in from 37 countries, 43 states,” he said. “We think we got into at least 5,000 households.” The festival, Looby says, will be in person in 2021, but he hopes to continue with vir- tual screenings and the pop-up drive-in. “Film is the dominant art form of our age,” he said. “And art forms have always been a way to understand what’s going on and to discuss what’s go- 2016, according to weather ser- vice data. The outlook for January calls for above normal temperatures and above normal precipita- tion. The normal high tem- perature for Bend in January is 41.1 degrees and the normal low is 24.5 degrees. Normal January precipita- tion in Bend is 1.53 inches. e e Retreat- ing clouds reveal the summit of Elk- horn Peak, the sec- ond-high- est point in the Elkhorn Mountains, on Sunday. Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com Baker City Herald Trump supporters flock to D.C. ahead of vote NATIONAL BRIEFING Counting continues in Senate races in Georgia Dec. 17. Precipitation in 2020 in Bend totaled 9.59 inches, which is 1.77 inches below nor- mal, according to the weather service. Bend had just a dusting of snowfall last month, with 0.1 inches recorded on Dec. 12. The total was less than the 2 inches recorded in December 2019, and much less than the 22 inches that fell in December ing on and there’s no better art form than film to prompt con- versation of understanding and empathy.” Looby and his team at BendFilm have continued their hard work to keep films and discussions surrounding it go- ing throughout the pandemic. “It is a labor of love,” he said. “But it has not all been easy go- ing. We won’t have significant revenue until hopefully (Tin Pan Theater) starts going again in June for regular screenings.” Looby hopes that anyone who has the means and the funds can support Bend- Film by donating, becoming a member and buying ticket packs that can be used online for virtual screenings or for future in-person showings at Tin Pan. “We need the community support to keep going and the community, in turn, needs what we do,” he said. e e Reporter: 541-383-0304, mwhittle@bendbulletin.com “I’m just here to support the president,” said David Wide- man, a 45-year-old firefighter who traveled from Memphis, Tennessee. Wideman acknowledged he was “confused” by a string of losses from the president’s legal team in their attempt to over- turn the results of the election and didn’t know what options Trump had left. “I not sure what he can do at this point, but I want to hear what he has to say,” Wideman said. Trump tweeted his support for the protesters: “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an elec- tion victory stolen by embold- ened Radical Left Democrats. Our Country has had enough, they won’t take it anymore! We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” The speakers included for- mer Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom the president pardoned after he was twice convicted of lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inves- tigation. “We stand at a crucible mo- ment in United States history,” Flynn told the crowd. “This country is awake now.” The president was expected to personally address his support- ers in Washington on Wednes- day during a rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House. The protests coincide with Wednesday’s congressional vote expected to certify the Electoral College results, which Trump continues to dispute. In a Tuesday evening tweet, Trump called on Democrats and fellow Republicans to look at the “thousands of people pouring into D.C.” In another tweet, he warned that antifa, the umbrella term for leftist militant groups that Trump has said he wants to declare a ter- rorist organization, should stay out of Washington.