The Weather Machine is a quirky little thing to find in Portland. I had heard about it the day before visiting it. Originally we were not going to have time to see anything in Portland, but because of flight delays, we got to spend a day exploring. It didn't go off right at 12, but it wasn't long afterward.

Prepare to not find any street parking near this spot. With an event going on in the square, I wasn’t allowed to get close, but I did get picts from behind a fence. I love how someone has to program this item every morning. It’s little things like this that make Portland unique.

Sitting off in a corner Pioneer Courthouse Square this unusual pole caught our eye as we wandered around. Doing a little online research, this art was a machine intended to predict the weather according to the type of orb toppers. A heron comes out of the orb if the weather is grey, a dragon if pouring rain and sun if nice. As with any weather report sometimes the prediction was off especially during our visit.Supposedly there was more to see and hear from it at noon when it makes it weather prediction.

Not sure who decided to put this quirky kinetic sculpture in a far corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square, but in my opinion, it should have been placed somewhere up in Washington Park or along the waterfront. Why? Because as I’m reading about the machine, trying to figure out its mechanics, I found myself constantly fending off homeless begging for money or shouting something incoherent towards me. After a while I gave up, walked away and took the weather machine for what it is - another one of Portland’s oddities.

If you are in Portland for a few days, go check this out. It predicts the weather for the following day. Sun for nice weather, Heron for drizzle and Dragon for an approaching storm. Located in Pioneer Square. Just another weird (but cool) thing about Portland!