More snow, cold keep C.O. roads slick; Crook-Jefferson court closes early, 509-J cancels after-school activities
Things will warm up a bit, but more snow expected
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Central Oregon’s two-week bout of cold, snowy weather ramped up again on Thursday morning with a few inches of new snow around the still-very cold region, leading to several crashes and slide-offs and prompting some early closures or late-day cancellations.
The National Weather Service extended Central Oregon’s winter weather advisory to 10 a.m. Friday but only predicted 1-2 more inches atop what fell Thursday morning.
The winter weather advisory for the higher-elevation east slopes of the Cascades, including La Pine and Sisters, is in place until 4 p.m. Friday, with 3-8 more inches of snow possible and winds that could gust to 35 mph.
Though the snow was tapering off in many locations, forecasters said more was due late in the day, and what fell so far led to some school and court actions in the northern part of the region.
Jefferson County School District 509-J canceled all after-school activities Thursday due to the weather conditions, while the Crook and Jefferson County Circuit Court announced it was closing at 2 p.m. Thursday “due to inclement weather.”
Thursday evening's planned public meeting in Sisters on an amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan also was canceled, to be reset for a future date, the Forest Service announced.
A National Weather Service spotter north of Prineville reported a two-inch accumulation between 6 and 9 a.m. Thursday. Mt. Bachelor reported three inches of new snow overnight and put some lifts on hold until the winds subsided.
Deschutes County dispatchers said there were not too many crashes Thursday morning, as they’d been dealing mostly with slide-offs or stuck vehicles who weren’t able to stop. They said a Les Schwab double-trailer semi-truck’s brakes froze up turning from Highway 97 onto Highway 126 toward Prineville, blocking traffic for a while.
They were also dispatching medics to help people slipping and falling on the ice.
Records fall amid sub-zero temps
Temperatures were still well below freezing but just a bit warmer than Wednesday morning, when several temperature records fell.
Redmond plunged to -5 degrees Wednesday morning, smashing its old Feb. 12 record of 7 degrees, set in 2018. Sisters dropped to -8, breaking a record set in 1959, while Madras had a record low of 5 degrees and Sunriver -11.
As for NWS weather spotters, one west of Prineville reported a -15 temperature Wednesday morning, while another east-northeast of Bend recorded a -21 and one in the Sunriver-Three Rivers area fell to -23, as did a station at Ochoco Reservoir. There was even a -32 recorded around 4 a.m. by ODOT 19 miles southeast of Bend.
NewsChannel 21 Chief Meteorologist John Carroll said the sub-zero temperatures are going away for at least a while, but more snow could make for more tricky commuting before the weekend.
