HELLO SAN FRANCISCO?

Since we've now spent two years in New York (Caspian celebrated 2 years on Sunday), and we've made a great new set of friends here, we're going to have to rename our blog so no one feels left out. So how about Hello San Francisco! ? Our future new home.

Anyway, here's a little tidbit I came across in Portland Monthly recently:

"Even in Portland, some neighborhoods are a little more waterlogged than others. "It's all directly tied into terrain and geography," says KGW chief meterorologist Matt Zaffino (who we, by the way, have shared a chairlift once at Mt.Hood Meadows - and seen hiking Ramona falls!) The downwind side of a mountain range -even a smaller one such as the West Hills - tends to lie in what weather guys call a "rain shadow", a relatively dry area. As you travel down and away from the hills, rainfall totals drop off, which means that PDX airport, where Portland's official rainfall totals are measured, derives an arid benefit from its location well removed from Council Crest.

But don't hang your laundry on the clothesline yet, Estacada (where I grew up and Caspian and I went to High School together) Portland's most easterly burgs are also influenced by their proximity to the Cascades; precipitation increases east of SE 82nd Ave as the clouds drop their moisture to clear that range. So just how wet is your plot? Consult these 30-year average annual rainfall amounts, and get splashing."

Portland: 37"
Hillsboro: 38"
Beaverton: 40"
McMinnville: 42"
Troutdale: 45"
St Helens: 45"
Oregon City: 46"
Vernonia: 49"
Estacada: 59"