Tag: snow storm

Snow closure at Bandon Dunes? It happened for the second straight day on Friday

Thanks to a winter storm that’s impacted a large swath of the nation, Bandon Dunes was closed for a second straight day on Friday.

In nearly two decades at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Scott Millhouser remembers only one other time like the one he suffered through this week as snow and freezing temperatures closed the Oregon golf mecca for more multiple afternoons.

Thanks to a winter storm that’s impacted a large swath of the nation, Bandon Dunes was closed for a second straight day on Friday. All five of the property’s courses land on the top 10 of Golfweek’s Best 2023 top 200 resort courses in the U.S.

“This is a once-in-a-decade kind of storm,” said Millhouser, who is the co-director of golf at the resort with Nick Bonander. “In my 18 years here I only remember one other time when we were closed like this for more than one day.”

And it’s not just Bandon. Snow is impacting much of Oregon, from the mountains to the coast.

There are numerous slowdowns and icy roads, along with multiple closures on the coast on and near U.S. Highway 101. The Portland metro area has been in bad shape with multiple roads and highways iced over and jammed with cars, making it not an ideal place to travel.

And the chilly conditions are pushing down into unprecedented areas, like Southern California. Lows temperatures were set to reach 40 degrees over the weekend in the area. Three million Californians awoke Friday morning to a winter storm warning stemming from the storm that first rolled into the Golden State the day before, leaving more than 150,000 customers without electricity.

As much as 5 feet of snow may fall in some mountains near Los Angeles, creating whiteout conditions as winds gust to 75 mph. The conditions raise the risk of avalanches, according to forecasters.

The weather service in San Diego issued its first-ever blizzard warning for mountain areas including Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead and Wrightwood through Saturday. The weather service in Los Angeles issued its own blizzard warning for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

There is good news, however, as the cold snap shouldn’t last too long.

In fact, Millhouser said snow was starting to thaw at Bandon Dunes late Friday, and golfers were using the range to prepare for the weekend.

“The practice facility never closed,” Millhouser said. “And we should be playing golf tomorrow.”

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Connecticut shifts entire high school football playoff slate because of snow

The entire Connecticut high school football playoff quarterfinal and semifinal slate was shifted to avoid Tuesday’s snow storm.

We’re just at the outset of the inclement weather season, but it’s already wreaking havoc on prep sports schedules in the Northeast, starting with the state football playoffs in Connecticut.

As reported by the Hartford Courant, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference announced Monday that the state’s complete slate of football tournament quarterfinals, which were scheduled to take place Tuesday night, will instead be played Wednesday. The schedule shift will also impact the state semifinals, which will move from Sunday, Dec. 8 to Monday Dec. 9.

The one day delay gives teams a fifth rest day following their Thanksgiving Day rivalry games, with the semifinals then played on the prescribed four days rest.

The decision to shift the state’s entire slate of games was made in an effort to maintain a sense of equality among the teams, rather than play one clutch of games Tuesday and another Wednesday, thereby giving one team an additional day of rest before the state semifinals, a respite that can be critical when the games are played so close together.

Of course, the games going ahead on Wednesday is dependent on the weather cooperating then. Much further delay and the state semifinals and state championship may be even more delayed themselves.