Falling Temps and First Snow to Lower Elevations

Got this picture an hour or so ago…several inches of snow on the ground in Parkdale…at around the 1,600′ elevation in the Upper Hood River Valley.  Thanks to Cindy Moore.  It appears snow is also mixing in down at the Hood River AWOS sensor since visibility has been unusually low for a few hours.  We are getting a good taste of winter at the western end of the Gorge and eastern Metro area too.  The surface low pressure center is heading right for us, pulling increasing easterly wind out of the Gorge.  Peak gusts are around 30 mph in the eastern suburbs, temperatures have actually been FALLING the last few hours, and it’s raining steadily.  Troutdale is only 40 degrees at 4pm, which IS the low for the day!  Corbett is 37 with a gusty east wind.  Wind chills are in the 30s out in the eastern metro area…what a cold day!

The low pressure center moves directly over us tonight and early tomorrow, so the east wind goes calm by midnight or so.  Rain is changing to lighter showers this evening too.

10pm Update:

More snow than expected in the Cascades…we’ve got the 10″ already at Timberline and Meadows.  Plus a good slug of  showers heading into the mountains the next 4 hours.  Then it’s all over by daybreak.  Timberline opens lifts tomorrow; it’ll be real interesting to see if Mt. Hood Meadows does a limited opening, hoping to make it through the next 7+ days of relatively dry conditions.

As mentioned last night, real dull the next 7+ days in the maps.  All models are keying in on SOME sort of change around the end of next week.  Some put us back into westerly flow, others bring cold air down right over us.  The 00z GFS (like candy for a kid!) shows a pattern cold enough to produce snow in the lowlands by Saturday the 20th, then a snowy/cold period in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.  That will change, but into what?  Who knows…

Chief Meterologist Mark Nelsen