Friday in Oregon: New Year's Eve Freeze
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — This Friday morning temperatures will hover in the low to mid 30's, making snow accessible once again. While there is a chance for snow showers this morning, moisture is limited. WATCH FOR SLIPPERY ROADS. Untreated roads will be something to tread carefully.
This morning any snow showers that pass through may accumulate where the ground is cold enough to keep it. We are not talking about a widespread snow event. Snow totals will pale in comparison to Thursday's and only affect a narrow section.
Our surrounding hills at 500' have a better chance of accumulating up to 1 inch -- enough snow to make driving tricky and/or legitimize sledding. Portland has a chance to pick up closer to 0.50". With showery-type precipitation, totals will vary. Plenty of valley locations will get no more than a snowflake in the sky. The last bit of moisture wraps up by 8 to 9 a.m. Friday. These showers will be focused across Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon.
Significant snow is expected over the Cascades and Eastern Oregon through the morning with 3 - 6" possible there. Winter weather advisories are in effect for those areas. NOT Portland. This enormous trough is moving out and high pressure arrives.
This afternoon you'll catch some sunshine but daytime highs only reach the mid to upper 30's.
Tonight through Saturday morning we'll experience the last gasp of sub-freezing temperatures. Mid to upper 20's possible under clear skies for Portland metro with a few outliers nearing 20°.
Saturday will be the best day for clearing skies in the mountains. A bluebird day all the way, but still very cold with teens overnight and 20's during the day.
The next chance for rain is Sunday afternoon. That begins a "warmer", wetter trend mid 40's. Looking out to January 4-6, there's a possible setup for an atmospheric river. We've seen this before. Cold and snowy turns to warmer and way too wet. At this point, it appears snow levels could rise to 6,000' for the middle of next week. We'll see.