Clark County, the Portland area and Southwest Washington remained under a winter storm warning until 10 p.m. Friday.
The National Weather service had measured about one-fifth of an inch of precipitation at its Portland International Airport office by Friday afternoon, but meteorologist Tanja Fransen said she saw about half an inch of moisture at her east Vancouver house.
Temperatures remained in the 20s throughout the day Friday.
More freezing rain was expected Friday night before the temperature was forecasted to rise above freezing early Saturday, Fransen said. The rain is supposed to stick around for the rest of the weekend, but Fransen said temperatures should stay in the mid-40s Saturday before reaching 52 degrees on Christmas Day.
While the rain and warmer temperatures will melt the ice, Fransen warns it will likely create a slushy mess.
Wind gusts peaked Thursday afternoon at Vancouver’s Pearson Field at about 30 mph. Fransen said the wind is forecasted to die off for the next few days.
Driving was bad, but flying was nearly impossible. Almost all flights to and from Portland International Airport were canceled through Friday afternoon.
As of about 3 p.m. Friday, Clark Public Utilities’ outage map showed about 100 people were without power, mostly near Washougal, and largely caused by trees into power lines. About 3,000 customers had had their power recently restored.
Utility spokesman Dameon Pesanti said the storm didn’t have the major impact the company had prepared for, but crews stayed busy navigating the tricky conditions, largely Thursday night and Friday morning.
“In total there were about 45 outages that affected 5,500 people in about the last 24 hours,” Pesanti said in an email Friday afternoon. “North and east county experienced the majority of the outages. Crews were able to make repairs in the north pretty quickly. The east took a little extra time — (Friday) morning, as soon as crews put lines up trees would fall and knock the power out again — but it wasn’t long before they got the upper hand.”
People can report an outage online at clarkpublicutilities.com/outages-safety or by calling 360-992-8000.
Numerous government buildings, community centers and businesses were closed Friday. Check www.columbian.com for the latest.
