Ice storm has ended; warming temperatures continue through Christmas Morning
Only the Columbia River Gorge will see additional very light icing tonight
The thaw is arriving everywhere except in the Columbia River Gorge this evening. For that reason, and it’s Christmas Eve, it’ll be a very short blog post!
We picked up plenty of rain today as a system crossed overhead, but now it’s just scattered showers this evening and a mainly dry Christmas Day ahead. This shows total rain from 4pm today (right now) to 4pm tomorrow as the sun is about to set. Just a few light showers; the areas with no color could even be dry the next 24 hours. Or close to it. The point is that not much is happening now through Christmas Day
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As always, the now very thin layer of cold air has been more persistent that models had shown. Freezing rain fell through much of the east metro area from PDX through Parkrose to Troutdale through morning and midday. But now all locations outside of the Columbia River Gorge are above freezing. Notice the warmup has been painfully slow even in west metro and Clark county. Even I was too fast warming these areas, but at least 30 or warmer plus rain means streets melt nicely.
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Salem is finally feeling a bit tropical (for December in the PACNW). Into the 50s!
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The layer of cold air is so thin that some interesting temperature contrasts are showing up; and that’s normal at the end of these cold events. At 4pm its 46 up on Mt. Scott in outer SE, yet 35 just a mile or so north at lower elevation. Then check out the 20s and 30s with 40s just a mile or two away (at higher elevation) in the Corbett area
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FORECAST FOR TONIGHT AND CHRISTMAS DAY
- Temperatures continue to climb through this evening and then just “plateau” a bit.
- There will be no refreezing outside of the Columbia River Gorge and north-central Oregon. Wet roads stay wet and icy roads continue to thaw.
- In the Gorge, it’ll stay frozen tonight, then temperatures climb up to AROUND freezing tomorrow. So some roads thaw out, others won’t.
- I-84 through the Gorge
- Expect a few light showers tonight and tomorrow, plus a few sunbreaks too. Temperatures will be in the 40s in east wind areas (east Portland), but 50 or so down in the valley.
That’s it. Merry Christmas!
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