Every year around this time, Portland has some sort of weather event. And right on time, the feet of snow falling nearby and the closure of I-84 are probably resulting in any number of tweets in the Portland area. As part of those tweets, an astute Twitter user like you might notice that the hashtag #pdxtst seems prevalent. But why is that?
To be honest, it all started as a bad joke more than a decade ago.
Aaron Hockley and Kelly Guimont were the first to coin the phrasing. They called it the “Portland Twitter Storm Team.” Although, Kelly cautioned that that moniker didn’t have quite enough drama. So she suggested “Portland Twitter! Storm! Team!”
And then a strange thing happened. The joke—apparently lost on some—got, well, co-opted. For real Portland weather reports. And they kept using it. Again and again.
For more on the history of #pdxtst, let’s hear from Aaron Hockley who is standing by… from 13 years ago.