Had enough of winter? There is more to come this week as we just can’t seem to shake the cold air east of the mountains. Now, it has warmed up above freezing in many locations in eastern Oregon, but still remaining in the 20s in the Columbia Basin in Washington. A series of low pressure systems move inland today and tomorrow that will cause higher pressure east of the mountains to funnel more cold air through the gorge.
North Clark County up through Cowlitz County was expected to get 1 to 5 inches of snow with amounts the greatest in the foothills and Cowlitz County. A brief break this afternoon and another low moving through Oregon could give us an inch or more of snow tonight and Wednesday. This is all dependent on the track of the storms and how much cold air infiltrates from the east.
The air aloft will be cold enough for snow down to 1,000 feet but with a surface gradient from the east that could make snowflakes fall all the way to downtown Vancouver. So stay tuned once again in the next 24 hours for the latest developments.
Writing this column Monday afternoon, all I could see were possibilities of snow but amounts were just a dice roll. Sounds like a reason for a “now cast” doesn’t it? Probably will be. The National Weather Service did issue a Winter Weather Advisory for 1 to 3 inches of snow in Clark County for today mainly north of downtown.