First Alert Weather Days declared for Thursday and Friday

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - First Alert Weather Days have been declared for Thursday and Friday, with a classic setup for snow or freezing rain (mainly freezing rain) in the metro area.

The setup is when very cold air comes through the Columbia River Gorge and pours out into the western valleys near sea level. Then warmer and moist Pacific air moves in overhead. Snow levels rise to around 7,000′ or so by Friday in the Cascades!

Most likely this will be a freezing rain event; an ice storm if we get significant amounts of it. Freezing rain is liquid rain that falls into below freezing air and freezes as a smooth icy glaze on contact. When we get more than about 1/2″, damage starts to become widespread with falling limbs and power lines.

We’re still 4-5 days away, so not many details for now. But we are confident that at least part of the metro area (and all of Gorge) has a big winter weather event on the way. And of course this is a huge travel time leading to Christmas Eve on Saturday, so we’ll be on top of it.

Read more on the First Alert Weather Blog here

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