The ying to the yang of a missing monsoon and a dry New Mexico and desert Southwest is the yang of the Pacific coastal states, and the plethora of water all this winter and last. No drought here. Coldest March on record for Oregon. On one day, the 31st, we had the monthly high of 60 degrees f. And are on a track to not have a 70 degree day in April. And the rain will not stop. Crops are not being put in as ground can't be worked. All sorts of pests and disease in tree and bush crops, and anything fall planted. The Columbia River is still so cold the spring salmon run is hung up at tidewater, or so the test gillnet fishing is telling us. They are not going over Bonneville dam. Or up the Willamette River falls fish ladder at Oregon City.

Snow is still accumulating. We got more than four feet in the mountains above 4000' last week. It is still snowing at pass level and above. The flood control dams are keeping the Willamette River high, and have been for two months, due to water dumping in anticipation of spring runoff from snow melt. Cold. Cold. and always wet. No golf, no tennis. The City of Portland has closed all public and park soccer, rugby, baseball fields until dry weather allows for their drying out.

This is typical, if extreme, "la nina" weather pattern. Indications are on the equator that "la nina" is patterning towards the "el nino" type of ocean warming, and all this weather woe will be far behind us in the next couple of years, and we will be seeing less rain and snow, higher temps, and a hue and cry to tax the living crap out of everyone to "stave off global warming." Those people are noticeably missing right now, even with the legislature in session. Hard to sell warming during the coldest March on record. Ever in over 100 years of record keeping. We have gotten 4 feet of snow this week above 4000' in the Cascades. It just keeps piling up. Thank goodness we had a dry January and part of February, or recreation in the high Cascades would not happen this year until August and in some areas, not at all. Mt. Shasta glaciers are growing in Northern California.

All those places east of the Rockies, and essentially north of the Missouri River, all the way to the Atlantic, are surely tired of the flooding this spring, as they were of the incessant snows and blizzards this last winter. A year of weather woes. And an out of sight Al Gore, Junior. He is most likely spending his extreme profits from carbon credits on the good life in California..between rain squalls and mud flows.

With massive forest mortality in the headwaters of the Colorado, wildfires will soon blacken the landscape and make soils hydrophobic. When water runs off and cannot penetrate damaged soils, it concentrates the erosive power of those floodwaters in spring, reducing water quality. At the end of summer and throughout the fall, springs, creeks and even rivers will dry up, because of low water tables.

It's not looking good for the big cities who depend on water from the Colorado River. Only 30+ million people will have to have water rationing for years and years. The government seems dedicated to letting dead forests burn during the summer, resulting in high fire intensities and radical soil damages, for up to two decades. I'm sure glad I don't depend on Colorado water but, produce prices from California will rise.