Although the mountain should pick up decent snow Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday, hopefully well over a foot, there are signs that February may struggle to reach normal precipitation totals.  With that said, the previous two strong El Nino seasons both had above normal moisture January, February and March!  Interesting enough, both years also had a dry April. 

My thought remains that the mountain is transitioning into 50% rainy days and 50% snowy days as the overall temperature pattern is now rising.  Consider that Mt. Hood Meadows at base elevation has picked up 54” of total snow fall over the past 10 days, but the base amount on the ground has declined from 108” to 93 inches.  In other words, lots of new snow, but even more melting.  

As long as March continues to see a good snow event with snow levels down to 4,000 feet, each week to 10 days, the overall base and skiing will likely be in good shape.  But I do believe the temperature table is turning to the warm side. 

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As for Portland, warm temps are an easy forecast outlook to predict.  I also believe a wet March is a good bet, but will stick with a below normal rain total in April.