“Even though we’ve had all this rain and snow we’re still expecting a normal fire season in Southern Oregon,” said Natalie Weber, Oregon Department of Forestry’s (ODF) Southwest Oregon District Public Information Officer. “While we’re thankful for the winter we’ve had, now is not the time to drop our guard.[Read More…]

The AllCare Medical Group’s clinic in the Illinois Valley has recently added board-certified family nurse practitioner Kate Belfakih to its growing staff and she brings a compassionate message about the importance of getting timely medical care.Before becoming a nurse practitioner Belfakih spent 10 years working as a floor nurse in[Read More…]

If the climate is warming then why was this past winter so cold?Firstly, it’s important to distinguish between weather and climate: Weather reflects conditions of the atmosphere over a short period of time; climate is how the atmosphere ‘behaves’ over relatively long periods of time.Scientists learn about climate, going back[Read More…]

Annette McGee Rasch – IVN Senior Contributing Writer Has this past winter been one for the record books? Not really. Not in terms of actual precipitation totals for much of southwest Oregon – though it’s been another story in California.Still, it’s been an “unusual” winter throughout Oregon, said National Oceanic[Read More…]

It was the night after Christmas when the wind started blowing. Renea CooperSmith and her husband David Smith were in bed, but sleep didn’t come.“We’re native Oregonians, so the weather doesn’t shock us much,” CooperSmith said. “But in 42 years of living in the Illinois Valley this was the biggest[Read More…]