Still looking like snow for Tuesday night.

Icy roads in the area this morning and at about 7am ODOT reported Hwy 6 had bare pavement with 4” roadside and temperature was 29. Hwy 26 had packed snow on the road, 10” roadside with temp of 28. Tomorrow morning the temperature should be down below freezing again so be cautious driving overnight into the morning hours tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, all eyes and ears are watching what develops tomorrow evening. We have a developing low pressure system to our southwest that is modeled to track into Oregon and pass north of Portland. The models had earlier been mixed on the tracks, a track south of Portland would mean more snow between Salem and Portland while a track north of Portland would mean less snow. The models are all on the same page now and show the track passing north of Portland and actually a little faster than previously shown. So what does this mean for us? Well, an increasing chance of rain after about 10am tomorrow with the snow level up around 2000’. With a strong east winds developing the snow level will be dropping during the day, falling to around 500’ in the afternoon. As the sun goes down the temperatures will follow and the snow level will fall even lower, likely down to the lowlands after 4pm. Overnight into Wednesday morning the warm front will push through, pushing the temperatures up above freezing in the lowlands, turning the snow back to rain, and the snow level starts to rise until above even the pass levels by the afternoon. There will still be snow, and slush at the higher elevations, but melting. Several other systems are expected through the area between Thursday and Sunday so the active, and wet, weather pattern continues all week.

For now a Winter Storm Watch is in effect from Tuesday afternoon thru late Tuesday night for the Portland area including the Hood and Columbia River Valley areas.

There is a Small Craft Advisory for our coastal waters but I expect Gale Watch/Warning will be issued for these areas later today or tonight, associated with the winds and seas accompanying the low moving northeast into the area.

I have a special weather briefing scheduled this afternoon with the National Weather Service to discuss the pending weather and will issue an update afterwards if there are any significant changes, but for now, back to work, or at work, which is a change from last week. Not at 100% yet, but, 80% never felt so good!

And no, no forecast on tonight’s game.

Gordon