When temperatures in Portland soar into the mid-eighties, and in some places in even 90; when we have a record number of 80-degree days (which we no doubt will have); when the snow pack starts melting before it’s due; when there is no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future, are we still in Oregon, folks?

Only 7 days into the month of May and already things are becoming problematic. Hot, dry weather so early in the year melts the snow pack long before it’s due to melt making way for potential drought conditions later in the summer.  It plays havoc with utility bills when lawns and gardens need to be watered through a meter and people rush to turn on their air conditioners which we don’t usually have to do until after the 4th of July. Yes, we are having rare days in May.

I’ve lived here nearly  40 years and I don’t remember a spring quite like this. Is it the mega-El Nino causing this strange affect? Certainly, it doesn’t help. Is it climate change? More likely than not it is.  Will Portland become the weather equivalent of San Francisco or Los Angeles? Who knows. What I do know is that I may have to move to Alaska someday to get relief from the incessant heat. How do you Arizonans do it?

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. We haven’t been ravaged by floods, buried in 6 feet of snow or been ripped apart by tornadoes.  Spring came to us almost one month early and every bloomin’ thing took on gigantic proportions.  But I hear the Devil calling from afar inviting us to another summer in Hell with all those 90-degree days just around the corner. I hope I’m wrong.