O wind that sings so loud a song

One of the running gags on the old blog was to overreact to weather warnings, just the way the local television stations do. The limitations of my current blogging software won't allow all of the gimmicks I used to employ in the old days, but we'll see what's possible come snow time (if it ever snows again in Portland).

But today, we've got weather worries of a different kind, and they sound pretty serious. High winds are expected to come roaring out of the east this afternoon and evening. That should make for an uncharacteristically hot and sunny time at the beach, but for those of us not at the beach, it might not be fun. Tree limbs may be flying, whole trees might even keel over, and the power could go out. These conditions may last through tomorrow.

Even worse, there's a real danger of wildfires, even in the city. As is typical in Portlandia, it hasn't really rained since June, and so there's a lot of dry fuel ready to burn. All it takes is one careless person to start a major conflagration, as we learned three years ago with the tragic Eagle Creek fire. It started on September 2.

So, Portland readers, let's not laugh this one off like another snow scare. Tie down anything that might blow away, and don't even think of doing anything that might throw off a spark, for the next few days.

And stay tuned to bojack2.com Storm Center 9000.3 for the latest updates.