As I write this column late Monday afternoon, I see the National Weather Service in both Portland and Seattle have over a dozen advisories and warnings for both states. Looking at the maps it was lit up like a Christmas tree with multiple colors. What a weather week we have in store.
I feel at a slight loss this early in the week to accurately predict what exactly will unfold. We know the mountains will get feet of snow and with strong winds, both Seattle and Portland issued a rare blizzard warning for the Cascades and the Olympics. The last blizzard warning for the Cascades occurred in 2012. Not a common warning.
Locally, we had a wind advisory Monday night into early today for strong gusty south to southwest winds. It was possible Clark County had some minor damage or scattered power outages. The next big wrinkle in the forecast is the fast-moving weather system moving across Western Oregon tonight. Two days ago, it was off the coast of Japan and traveling at a fast pace.
What’s the big deal about this? With the atmosphere cooled by today’s cold front passage, the storm, if it travels south of Clark County with brief heavy precipitation, could bring the snow level to the surface and give us one of those heavy, wet snows that really make a mess. This was not a slam dunk as the exact track of the low center will make all the difference in the world as far as snowfall goes. Might not be a big deal as it occurs during the wee hours of the morning, one could even miss it. We’ll see.
