Local Alert Weather – Thurs. PM

Happy Thursday evening, everyone!

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY is in place for the west slopes of the Cascades through tomorrow night. Significant snowfall is expected with 10-20″ of snow for the mountains and 7-11″ of snow expected on the passes. Have traction tires on or chains handy if you plan on traveling over the next 36 hours and allow yourself extra time.

Central Oregon can expect a slight chance for isolated snow flurries tonight, but apart from that we will see partly cloudy to mostly clear skies. Overnight lows will be in the mid to upper 20s. Winds will be gusty at first out of the west around 25 miles per hour, then turning out of the south.

Tomorrow morning will begin dry, but we’ll start to see snow showers around 8 a.m. Snow shower activity is expected through the afternoon and into the evening. Anywhere from 1-3″ of snow is expected for most of the High Desert with 3-4″ of snow expected in higher elevations like Sunriver and La Pine.

Roads will likely be icy in the morning with slushy conditions as well. Highs for Friday will top out in the low to mid 40s, which is below average. Winds will be breezy at times out of the southwest around 15 miles per hour with gusts up to 25 miles per hour.

Snow levels will begin around 2,800′ Friday morning then falling to 1,600′ by the evening. Through the weekend snow levels will stay below 2,400′. This means most of the shower activity we will see would be snow or wet snow.

Heading into the weekend conditions will be much more calm. Winds will back off, shower activity will calm down, and skies will gradually clear. We’ll still see chilly air lingering, but we are expected to be dry.

— Emily