Believe it or not a “warm front” passed overhead today with moderate to heavy rain in NW Oregon and SW Washington. Yes, it’s now warmer (33deg) at the top of the Magic Mile chairlift (7.000′) than many parts of the metro area. So where is the warm air? As models correctly forecast, a strong easterly wind returned through the Gorge by sunrise and shoved a 1,500′ layer of cold air across the metro area and up/down the Willamette Valley. Now this cold airmass is 15-20 degrees warmer than the one that came in last Saturday. But that’s still just barely cold enough to drop temps to freezing or even a few notches below across a good chunk of the central/eastern metro area, plus West Hills and other adjacent areas. Here are the current metro temps; what you can’t see is most of East Portland over/east of I-205 is in the 28-30 degree range. That’s cold enough for renewed icing on some roads this evening. Everywhere else roads have remained wet or slushy; notice all official airport locations except Troutdale are at/above freezing and PDX has remained ice-free.
Roads aren’t such a big deal, but falling trees and downed power lines are a BIG deal this evening. We (and likely you) have been watching numerous power flashes as power lines arc or branches fall on lines. BTW, transformers rarely “explode” according to my lineman neighbor even though we all use that phrase. That’s the extent of my knowledge on that subject. Why so many issues with powerlines and trees down? We expected the wind and 1/4 to 1/2″ additional ice glazing in these areas, but look at the precipitation today…up to an inch!
Strong east wind has likely been gusting 30-50 mph east metro, but just about all wind sensors are down due to icing or out of power. In fact no western Gorge sensors are functional either. But we know it’s very strong with the pressure gradient back up around 12 millibars PDX to The Dalles. I see PGE outages have climbed from around 5,000 customers when I came in at 2pm to around 45,000 now! That’s a major event, especially considering it’s concentrated in Multnomah and northern Clackamas counties. Sure, we had a brief thaw yesterday and this morning, but now 1/2 of the metro area is at least partially frozen again, adding to the miserable week we’ve been experiencing.
WHAT’S AHEAD?
Precipitation should end soon, and then we’re mainly dry until late Saturday afternoon. Temperatures tonight hover right where they are, which means there will be areas of ice for the morning drive in the West Hills and anywhere east of there. Clark County and much of Washington County should see mainly clear roads (except for areas where is still present from Tuesday’s freezing rain)
The east wind backs off a little tomorrow, then quite a bit Saturday.
Since the cold airmass east of the Cascades has modified a bit, that should allow Portland to creep up into the upper 30s tomorrow. That will help roads a bit and allow some ice to fall off trees. In the western metro west of the West Hills life should once again be a bit closer to normal; I was surprised how many people were out and around in Beaverton (by the TV station) compared to east side. Same thing should happen tomorrow.
A further weakening of the wind Saturday should allow more spots in the metro to peak around 40 or even slightly above. Troutdale and Gresham like only reach upper 30s in that wind.
Light rain late Saturday and Saturday night should only be freezing rain EAST of the metro area in the Gorge since temps remain above freezing.
On Sunday the easterly wind really backs off, and that should let more of us (even in the city) reach 40 or so…slightly quicker melting.
Portland’s Forecast(kptv)
So the big question…when will my normal life resume? For one, I’m right with you, my home and road are totally encased in ice and I don’t have power like many of you. The answer is that even with temperatures barely reaching 32 each night and highs up around 40, melting is painfully slow with this cold east wind. I don’t think “normal” returns for most of us east of I-205 until Monday and beyond. By the way, the central/eastern Gorge picked up 4-8″ snow today and that’s not going anywhere through the weekend
