15,000 Attend Juan de Fuca Festival
About 4,000 people bought tickets to the Festival, and roughly 11,000 additional people attended the street fair.
The Festival's Executive Director, Anna Manildi, said: "We had about the same amount of people come in the doors [as in 2009] but we had less people at the street fair," because of the "wet weather."
And this is where we come to the PDN's somewhat — without putting too fine a point on it — schizophrenic approach when it comes to reporting the local weather.
Port Angeles residents who constantly talk about all the rain we're getting — and then happen to glimpse at the weather section at the back page of Section C of the PDN — must be wondering when Rip Van Winkle is going to wake up, look out the window and go "Huh??? Oh! Uhh..."
The most blatant display of the PDN's schizophrenic weather reporting was 2 or 3 weeks ago. They had a front page photo of a sailboat in Port Angeles Harbor, and the caption said something like "after the rain finally stopped, so-and-so was finally able to sail his boat in the harbor yesterday afternoon."
Then, in case anyone happened to glimpse at that day's weather page after reading that caption, the report was "yesterday's rainfall for Port Angeles, 0.0 inches."
Hello?!?!?!?!? Dingdingdingdingdingding!!! Anybody home???
This ineptitude has been going on all year. And it isn't just the PDN's weather "service," AccuWeather. The Weather Channel (linked at the upper right corner of this blog) is just as "mysterious." They show Port Angeles' rainfall from the previous day, going back for up to two months. Except —not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here, but if the shoe fits — they keep revising the earlier rainfall counts. Revising??? How do you revise that? Maybe I'm missing something, but if a certain area got, say, .80 inches of rain on a given day, how does that measurement get "revised" downward to .07 inches a day or two later?
Does the Weather Channel (or AccuWeather) hire handicapped/cerebrally-challenged people to measure rainfall? Maybe this disadvantaged person goes back to the same rain gauge 2 or 3 days later and thinks "Huh? Oh, I wrote .8 inches, but now that I look closer, it's actually only .01 inches."
I mean, I'm not making accusations — I'm just wondering. Does anyone else think it's a little odd that Sequim has almost as much rain as Port Angeles this year (according to the PDN), and Port Townsend has more? Or just, well, every time it rains, like it's been doing a lot lately, the next day's PDN weather page will say Port Angeles got a "trace" of rain, or maybe .01 inches.
Is this just a case of incredible incompetence (reading a rain gauge is sooo complicated), or are the Port Angeles Powers That Be trying to attract new residents by horning in on Sequim's "rain shadow" reputation?
I'm not accusing anyone of anything; just asking. Anyone have answers or theories?
The Festival's Executive Director, Anna Manildi, said: "We had about the same amount of people come in the doors [as in 2009] but we had less people at the street fair," because of the "wet weather."
And this is where we come to the PDN's somewhat — without putting too fine a point on it — schizophrenic approach when it comes to reporting the local weather.
Port Angeles residents who constantly talk about all the rain we're getting — and then happen to glimpse at the weather section at the back page of Section C of the PDN — must be wondering when Rip Van Winkle is going to wake up, look out the window and go "Huh??? Oh! Uhh..."
The most blatant display of the PDN's schizophrenic weather reporting was 2 or 3 weeks ago. They had a front page photo of a sailboat in Port Angeles Harbor, and the caption said something like "after the rain finally stopped, so-and-so was finally able to sail his boat in the harbor yesterday afternoon."
Then, in case anyone happened to glimpse at that day's weather page after reading that caption, the report was "yesterday's rainfall for Port Angeles, 0.0 inches."
Hello?!?!?!?!? Dingdingdingdingdingding!!! Anybody home???
This ineptitude has been going on all year. And it isn't just the PDN's weather "service," AccuWeather. The Weather Channel (linked at the upper right corner of this blog) is just as "mysterious." They show Port Angeles' rainfall from the previous day, going back for up to two months. Except —not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here, but if the shoe fits — they keep revising the earlier rainfall counts. Revising??? How do you revise that? Maybe I'm missing something, but if a certain area got, say, .80 inches of rain on a given day, how does that measurement get "revised" downward to .07 inches a day or two later?
Does the Weather Channel (or AccuWeather) hire handicapped/cerebrally-challenged people to measure rainfall? Maybe this disadvantaged person goes back to the same rain gauge 2 or 3 days later and thinks "Huh? Oh, I wrote .8 inches, but now that I look closer, it's actually only .01 inches."
I mean, I'm not making accusations — I'm just wondering. Does anyone else think it's a little odd that Sequim has almost as much rain as Port Angeles this year (according to the PDN), and Port Townsend has more? Or just, well, every time it rains, like it's been doing a lot lately, the next day's PDN weather page will say Port Angeles got a "trace" of rain, or maybe .01 inches.
Is this just a case of incredible incompetence (reading a rain gauge is sooo complicated), or are the Port Angeles Powers That Be trying to attract new residents by horning in on Sequim's "rain shadow" reputation?
I'm not accusing anyone of anything; just asking. Anyone have answers or theories?
posted by Tom Harper at 1:25 AM
20 Comments:
The PDN is SUCH a waste of time. I quit my subscription years ago.
I drive daily to Port Townsend, and they, indeed have gotten more rain. They aren't in the shadow of the Olympics. So on a day, even like today, where it's fairly dry and not windy at all...PT is being blown all over like a Mo-FO and rain will be torrential, at times.
A few weeks ago, it pleasant until about BLYN and then it was like a floodgate opened and the skys parted and buckets were coming down. I was sure that on my return trip I'd come back to find the rain had gotten to Port Angeles/Sequim. But, it was as if there was a curtain. AT the casino the rains turned to a trickle and by River Road the roads were dry. Totally dry in PA.
Tom, we're dealing with microclimates here. The problem is the PDN, though. I agree with you there.
She estimates that the outdoors street fair drew an additional 11,000 people, for a total of 15,000 attending the festival.
How in the HELL WAS THIS!!! None of the merchants will say it was busy at all, nor was the turnout massive, and sales were down. IF the event sold 5,000 tickets then how in the hell can another 6,000 to 11,000 people just show up? IN THIS TOWN? I think not.
And, what was the deal with the ILLEGAL aframe sign on the corner of Peabody and Front? Thing was 6 feet high, and made of plywood. So, let me get this straight, the downtown merchants get their balls busted all the time about the size of their A-frames (plus they need to pay over 100bucks for a permit to use one, AND there are fines if you don't, not to mention all the rules about where you can put them -- not on street corners, that's for sure). But, it's fine for one that is large enough to kill a person, to infringe on the sidewalk, blocks away from the event?
The realtors in this town should be up in arms. They get their signs taken (and in confiscated!) if the signs are inappropriately placed or over size, or under sized.
Its an outrage that if there are rules enforced citing public safety, that they are not enforced equally.
"Quitting Port Angeles"
H'mmmm ... could it be they're a touch bitter?
Well, I've only lived here for twelve years but my sense is that if you put up a hundred rain gauges around town you would get a lot of varying readings.
And wind varies a lot here also, it can be as windy as hell in parts of town and hardly stirring where I live, a lot of it seems to jump over me.
Most old timers don't pay much attention to it all, "The weather report? Hey, weather happens, if I want to know what is happening I'll look out the window."
Everyone knows that I go camping year around, do I check the weather report first? Nope, I just go.
Maybe if you talk to the PDN they'll make you the official rain gauge reader?
I just went for the elephant ears...
Hey Tom,
I used to post on this blog quite a bit, months ago. But one day, the site stopped allowing me to post comments. ( I'm writing from a different computer, in a different location at the moment.)
What gives?
Anonymous: I have no idea. I have comment moderation, but the only comments I don't publish are the ones that either call people names or could be interpreted as slanderous.
If you're saying the site wasn't allowing you to post comments, I have no idea what could be causing that.
I think that May West liked slanderous. :-)
You mean Mae West, Billy.
Hey Tom,
Thanks for the reply. I didn't think, nor meant to imply YOU were blocking me from posting. It definately is something to do with the site.
I wonder how many others have been blocked from posting here? When I get back to my "usual" computer, I'll send a note to "blogger.com", unless you have other folks to suggest I (and maybe others) contact.
Contacting Blogger would probably help. I can't think of anybody else to contact. Good luck.
You mean Mae West, Billy.
Correct, I had brain fart.
15,000? Really? Those numbers seem pretty darn optimistic to me. 4000 tickets sold is verifiable, but I sure didn’t see anything like 11,000 people (divided by 2.5 days) no way. Maybe they were counting people like me who took a circuit of the “Bumbershoot in a parking lot” and walked away shaking their heads.
Perhaps if our “regional fair’ had anything to do with our region, maybe if we had a local vendor or two, or a “craft “ booth that offered something other than the same “hobby art" crap available at every other street fair, or some decent food, maybe if the performance venue wasn’t a smelly fifty year old JR High school gymnasium, we could attract more than casual passers by, but as it is, the Juan de Fuca “Festival” serves as nothing more than a reminder of just how pathetic life in Port Angeles really is.
Are you "Quitting Port Angeles" too?
"Bumbershoot in a parking lot"?? LOL! Are you really expecting Bob Dylan, Weezer and Neko Case to come to Port Angeles? It's never going to be Bumbershoot and it's pretty unfair to compare the two.
Yeah, what's the story on the Blue Dolphin and why they're leaving, anybody heard anything?
For a while it seemed like the guy was living in the storefront. Personally, I thought it was a front for something else.
"Bumbershoot in a parking lot"?? LOL! Are you really expecting Bob Dylan, Weezer and Neko Case to come to Port Angeles? It's never going to be Bumbershoot and it's pretty unfair to compare the two.
1:38 PM, June 03, 2010
Actually, there is no problem at all with the talent line up -the last few years have been crazy good… but the street fair is cheesy, the facilities suck, and the whole thing feels slapped together.
I don't know why Blue Dolphin is leaving... or actually care much, sorry... but I am very grateful downtown FINALLY has a place where I can buy pizza by the slice. And what's more, it's good pizza. With lots of bacon.
Mmmm, bacon!
JFFA has got some good music in it, but it's hampered by the venue. Or venues. It's kind of spread out all over the place. I do think they're making the best of what they've got. It'd be tough to create a local version of Bumbershoot or the Capitol Hill Block Party with our existing infrastructure.
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