At the risk of having unreasonable expectations, I think 23-26 has been a fairly terrible stretch. The cold stretch in January 24 looks great on paper. But that cold layer in Portland was super shallow and quickly rendered unconducive to snow. All three of those winters had horrendous Decembers, with nothing remotely interesting from a cold/snow perspective. In fact, we're getting to the point where non-weather enthusiasts I talk to basically treat December like a pre-winter month because it's become so uneventful.

Light snow finally starting. I’ve been watching my relative humidity like a hawk. Typically don’t start seeing snow until 80% or higher, things started at 69% and has jumped up 7% in the past 10 minutes. It’s crazy watching the snow rate change with the humidity!

Case in point, here’s the solution the AI Euro had for 2/18, just six days in advance

Murray already had 2" half hour ago from that band that's sitting

Yeah last February actually produced a fairly solid pattern, but it just didn't really translate to the lowlands around Portland. Temps were essentially seasonal, except for that two-day cold burst that generated the minor snow event, which was hampered by a transition to sleet for several hours. I'd gladly take that pattern again, however, especially after this winter. I don't recall the specifics of 14-16, but the prolonged January death ridges right in the heart of cold season over the last two winters really add to the misery. We've had duds that saw the foothills and mountains get absolutely hammered, or winters more defined by a super active Pacific and a constant conveyor of warmer, wetter systems (see December). But nothing is worse than a 3+ week ridge that eats up your prime cold season. And to have that occur twice in a row is brutal. I totally understand the argument that if it's not going to snow in winter, might as well shoot for dry. But ridges during inversion season feel like a total waste to me. We don't get to experience the full benefit of what should ostensibly be a warm, sunny pattern, yet we also don't have a chance at lowland snow, despite overnight temps suggesting otherwise. Ridges and inversions are inevitable during winter. But when they go on for weeks it's pretty tough. And in the case of this winter, we kind of had a double-barreled ridge pattern that lasted more or less for an entire month.