We have had for the most part tranquil winter so far as weather is concerned. No flooding rains, no windstorms, no snowstorms or ice until now. The widely advertised winter weather that will impact your life to some degree will be well underway as you read this column Thursday. We have the cold air with us well entrenched thanks to those blustery easterly winds. Now we add some moisture to the picture.
Even though it was less than 24 hours before the big event as I write this, the fine details were still up in the air. So, I will generalize for you. Cold and quite dry air continues to spill out of the Gorge as a modified arctic air mass set up shop in the Columbia Basin a few days ago. Not as cold as January 2024 or February 2023 but enough to cause impediments with getting out and about.
A low-pressure system well to our south was positioned off the Southern Oregon coast and as it moved closer to landfall, moisture bands were expected to rotate northward in the typical counterclockwise circulation of northern cyclones. Initially the cold air will be deep enough that we get some snow before mixing with sleet and freezing rain as the precipitation ends later today. But it isn’t over yet folks.
We get a break in the precipitation but as the low finally moves inland to our south another wave of moisture was forecast to swing northward late tonight and early Friday. With the lowest pressure still to our south, the east winds will increase some and the cold dry air will continue for a while. This may deepen the cold air layer, and I expect we may see more snow fall before the colder air aloft gets depleted. The precipitation ends Friday during the day, and we warm above freezing. It may drop to freezing or below Friday night, but a warmer weather system arrives over the weekend and cuts off the east winds. How about south winds and 50 degrees by Sunday or Monday?
