Eugene makes almanac's 'worst weather' list

September 4, 2001

September 1, 2001

In praise of drizzle: Eugene makes almanac's 'worst weather' list

A Register-Guard Editorial

Anyone who has trudged through the streets of Chicago in late February,

galoshes filled to the brim with icy slush, might take issue with the 2002

Farmers' Almanac's ranking of Eugene as the ninth " worst weather " city in

the nation.

So, too, would any unfortunate soul who has survived a death march down the

Las Vegas Strip on a 112-degree day in mid-August - or who has survived a

Green Bay Packers home game in that football deep-freeze called Lambeau

Field.

Granted, the almanac's editors are on solid ground in ranking Eugene as high

in the " cloud and humidity department, " with an average of 209 cloud-filled

days each year and an average relative humidity equal to New Orleans'.

But it takes some real audacity for the almanac's editors - who have their

home office in ton, Maine, of all places - to plop our beloved Eugene

on a list of worse-weather cities along with the sorry likes of Marquette,

Mich., and Syracuse, N.Y. Unless one is trying to tan forearms, or ripen

tomatoes (both activities near and dear to farmers' hearts), Eugene's

glorious summers and autumns, and sunless, drizzly winters and springs have

infinitely more appeal than some of the cities that the almanac lists as

having the " best weather " in the nation.

The 185-year-old almanac listed Yuma, Ariz.; Las Vegas; Phoenix; El Paso,

Texas; Reno, Nev.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Winslow, Ariz.; Bakersfield, Calif.,

and San Diego as the premiere weather cities in the country.

Please. These cities, all located in either California or the Southwest,

have ice-free sidewalks and are nice places for sitting around the pool and

eating Popsicles. But not one of them - not one, mind you - elects a slug

queen or has a college team called the Ducks.

Such a serious lapse in judgment also calls into question the validity of

the almanac's legendary weather predictions. Editors are calling for an

active winter followed by a wet summer in the Northeast, Southeast and

Pacific Northwest, with drier than normal weather in the Midwest.

The publication explains that there will be no El Niño or La Niña - warming

and cooling trends in the Pacific Ocean - to meddle with weather patterns.

Climatologists call such an absence " La Nada, " a phrase that conveniently

also summarizes the credibility of the Farmers' Almanac's ranking of Eugene

as one of the worst weather cities in the nation.

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