Rod's Weather Headlines

A warm front arriving Tuesday night and a trailing cold front Wednesday afternoon will kick-off a stretch

of active weather through New Year's and into the mid-part of next week.  

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for tonight starting

at midnight and lasting into Thursday morning.  Travelers over the Cascades should expect

snow covered roadways at times.  Snow levels tonight will be near 5,000 feet, meaning 

Government Camp will see rain.  Wednesday morning snow is expected at pass level with 

levels near 4,000 and down to 3,500 feet during the day.  Government Camp could see 6” of

snow through early Thursday, while resorts at 5,000’ see up to a foot of fresh snow!

Holiday travelers will see a wet mix Friday below 5,000 feet and accumulating snow over

all Cascade passes Saturday and Sunday.  The heaviest snow rates and strongest winds

in the high country will arrive Saturday evening into early Sunday morning with the strongest

weather front of the week.  Weather models show more than 2 feet of total snow above 5,000

feet tonight through Sunday. 

Be sure and check my Mt. Hood Weather Page for current conditions and updates. 

Rod Hill

A FLOOD WATCH continues today for our region.  Rain totals since last evening are generally around

an inch here in the valley, which matches forecast projections.  Steady rain continue to fall today, tonight and much of Monday with an additional 1-2” of rain, pushing storm totals to 2.50 - 3.25” over Portland and Salem. The front that arrived last night will orientate parallel to the upper wind flow and hold stationary over Portland today.  A secondary low center will arrive Monday afternoon or evening and push the frontal boundary through Portland and off to the east.  Rain will break up Monday night and dry weather will take hold Tuesday.  Winds will calm a bit on this Sunday and be variable 5-25 mph, but southwest gusts Monday will pick back up 20-35 mph. Snow level today near 6,500 feet. Heavy rain will continue at pass level the next 24 hours. 

Weather models show breaks in the rain Sunday afternoon north of Vancouver and possible breaks in the rain Sunday overnight and Monday morning for much of our region, including Portland and Salem as the rain area pushes north of Portland.  The trailing low center arriving Monday, will bring a return of steady rain to the I-5 corridor.  The 3-day rain episode will end Monday overnight or early Tuesday morning. 

Rod Hill

Heavy weekend rains may lead to flooding issues in typical smaller water way basins and near burn scars

left from September’s wildfires.  Forecast models show 2.25 - 3.00” of total rainfall tonight through the day 

Monday over the Willamette Valley and southwest Washington.  Coast rain totals may reach 3.00 - 4.50”

and mountain rain totals could reach 6.00” through Monday.  

The wildcard is the unknown potential for rapid runoff over the wildfire burn scars areas along the west slope

of the Cascades and in Lincoln County.  Assuming weather models are correct with rain projections, the rain 

totals spread out over 3-4 days would likely not produce widespread issues, but again the runoff potential over burn

scars is an unknown. 

Current timing of rain shows a separate front bringing around 1/4” of rain this evening and then hours of steady rain

arriving late Saturday afternoon and pouring through the day Monday.  

A classic flood risk would deliver 6” of mountain rain over a 24-36 hour time frame.  This weekend’s rain event will 

be spread out over 3 days as mentioned, which will help minimize the flood risk.  The graphic below shows total rainfall potential Friday night through Monday evening: