After a very slow winter pattern over the Pacific Northwest, a big change is projected to hit by this weekend. There is a very cold system parked on the north end of the Gulf of Alaska. This system will begin to rotate toward Oregon on Saturday bringing higher clouds and cooler weather to the region. Late Saturday night we will start to see precipitation move down from Washington, into Portland, and eventually into Eugene. The first sign of showers might just fall as rain...it really depends on how much cold air has filtered down at that point.
Sunday looks like the best day (over the weekend) for folks to see the white stuff. I think we will bounce back and forth between snow and rain (below 1000 ft) until the evening. I think we will see accumulations pile up Sunday night to around Tr-3". The higher amounts will stick to the higher terrain.
The great news with this system is that the Cascades will see their much needed snowfall. It looks like they can get anywhere from 1 to 2 feet by early next week.
Lingering rain/snow flurries will occur on Monday but then another shot of chilly moisture comes in on Tuesday. I think we have a better shot of seeing accumulations early on. Some places could see 1-4" in the valley. Travel delays may take place so make sure to tune into NewsSource 16 for updates.
Tuesday might end up being a mess. We have a warmer system moving in which should scour all that cold air out of here and turn the precipitation back over to rain. The problem is we might see freezing rain during the "in-between" stage which would make for horrible travel conditions.
After that we have several days of rain all the way into the following weekend. Updates can be found on
www.facebook.com/jordansteeleweather &
www.facebook.com/kmtrnews .
