Wet through Monday, brief snow chance in hills

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The rain is here and it’s here to stay for the rest of the evening. The first half of the day featured light, drizzly showers, and our afternoon high temperatures around the metro area topped out in the low to mid 40s. It is breezy out there, with the east side of the city recording wind gusts in the 30s. The heaviest rain will happen late tonight as a cold front pushes through. This system is going to dump heavy snow in the Cascades!

A winter storm warning kicks in tonight for the Cascades and goes through tomorrow night. We could see 8-15 inches of snow accumulate in that time, plus there will be some blustery winds up there- gusts as high as 40 MPH are expected. Plan on winter driving conditions through the mountains for the next 24 hours!

Tomorrow isn’t looking as wet for us in the valleys. There is a slight chance for some snow or mixed showers tomorrow morning around Salem or Albany, but it wouldn’t last very long. A couple inches could accumulate in the hills above 1,000 feet. The afternoon looks drier, with a few scattered showers mixing with sun breaks. High temperatures will top out in the mid to upper 40s around Portland.

We’re switching to a milder pattern over the weekend. A warmer southerly flow will bump our high temperatures into the 50s starting Saturday- our first “spring-like” day of the season. We should be mainly dry, too! We’ll turn wet again Sunday afternoon and see pretty steady rain through Monday. Some models are giving us an inch or more of rain on Monday. The precipitation tapers off Tuesday and Wednesday with some spotty showers, and then we’ll dry out Thursday thanks to a ridge of high pressure.

Don’t forget we “spring forward” and bump our clocks ahead one hour over the weekend for daylight saving time!

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