Showers and mountain snow today, heavy rain overnight possible
The seemingly endless parade of storms continue to march through the Pacific Northwest bringing high elevation snow and lower elevation rain. The temperatures over the weekend will be mild and support mainly rain east of the Cascades. The snow levels will be above 4500 feet (La Pine is 4200 feet) so the wintry mix of rain and snow will occur mainly at night when temps drop below freezing.
Today will be a variably cloudy day and we should see a mix of clouds and sunshine this afternoon. A warm front arrives from the south after the sun goes down and there will be some snow ahead of the front. This should be short lived as rain will overtake the region into Sunday morning. Rain may be heavy at times tonight, which may lead to some minor flooding, more on that below.
The snow levels will be near 5500 feet so travel over the passes will be messy and slushy. The crests will be snowy and snow-packed creating dangerous travel conditions. A Winter Storm Watch is in place for the east face of the Cascades this weekend as several more inches of snow will fall on the mountains. La Pine, Sisters, and Sunriver are included in the watch, and 3 to 4 inches of snow may accumulate over the weekend in those areas. Traveling over the mountains, once again, will be dangerous and slow.
Sunday will be the “tapering off” day as the region begins to dry out. Expect to see showers in the morning, and again in the afternoon. An area of high pressure will begin to take over late in the day and will linger around until the end of the year, keeping us dry. Sunday will be rainy off and on, so although we are going to see some tapering off of the rainy pattern, Sunday will still be wet.
Something to keep an eye on is the potential for some minor flooding. Flooding is a concern Sunday morning as the rain may be heavy at times tonight and into Sunday morning. The lag-time of the runoff will allow area small creeks and streams to run fast and full late in the day. Expect to see some ponding on roadways will be likely. Some icy conditions may develop overnight into Monday morning as temps dip to the 20s.
The last bit of 2024 will be dry and crisp as highs will be in the upper 30s to low 40s and overnight lows in the teens and 20s. A spot shower is possible New Year’s Day but not much more than that.
Stay Safe.
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