What a winter! And spring! Today's snowfall doesn't go down as Portland's latest, that honor goes to downtown Portland in 1933:

The latest BIG snowfall was no joke, it happened on April Fools Day also in downtown Portland:

But here are some of the snow totals from around the area from March 28, topped by Buxton in the Coast Range:

Perhaps even more incredible is what is happening in the Cascades. Mt Hood Meadows Ski Resort set a new ALL TIME season snowfall record on Friday:

What's interesting about this is the old record was set during the MASSIVE El Nino of 1982-83. If you're thinking" "Now wait a minute, El Nino's usually bring warm dry winters to the Northwest!", you're right. Usually, they do. But the 1982-83 El Nino was SO strong, it kept the entire West Coast under the storm gun all winter. Remember the homes in Mailbu, CA sliding off cliffs into the ocean?

So the El Nino record has been surpassed by a La Nina year, appropiately enough. We expect a lot of mountain snow in La Nina years like this. I was living in Salt Lake City in 1982-83, enjoying record snowfall and great powder days at Alta Ski Area in the Wasatch Mountains. But I'd venture to guess that this year, the skiing in the Northwest has been better than it was in 1982-83, because we've had so many days with low elevation snow. That means the snow at the ski areas is colder, drier and fluffier, which makes for better skiing.

And the Cascades get more snow this weekend. The hits just keep on coming.

Feel free to post YOUR snow totals and observations of our wild weather here. Love to hear about them!

Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist

Posted by at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Update - 1:00pm, Wednesday

The snow level looks to stay around 1,000 feet from now through Friday - but in heavier showers, some snow could fall all the way down to the surface. We saw that earlier today, with reports of snow in Southeast Portland, Camas, and Cannon Beach. There was also snow at the Oregon Zoo and near the Terwilliger curves.

Update - 7:00am, Tuesday

It looks like the snow levels will be as low as 1,000 feet late tonight and tomorrow morning, and down to 500 feet overnight tomorrow night. Accumulations should be fairly light, though, and the roads below 1,000 feet should stay clear of ice - it'll just be a bit too warm.

Original Blog from Monday

Boy oh boy - it seems mother nature is teasing us this year! Spring is officially here, but it may be feeling more like winter this week.

Several inches of snow have fallen at the ski resorts today, and the snow level is expected to drop to 2,000 feet overnight. So the passes will be turning a bit messy. But the snow level won't be stopping there.

Government Camp Highway 26 Camera, 6:30pm Today

The computer models are trying to show an area of low pressure developing and dropping down across the Northwest. If it drops far enough south, the snow levels could drop down to 1,000 feet Wednesday into Thursday. I know that sounds wild, but it's what the models are saying.

So...we'll be watching and waiting in the Severe Weather Center. Could there be some spring snow for Portland's highest hills?

Joe

Posted by KGW Meteorologist Joe Michaels at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today's temperatures have reached into the 60s - again! Believe it or not, we also saw temperatures in the 60s yesterday. This marks the third time this spring we've seen consecutive 60-degree days.

Photo Courtesy Marywood University
Combine our warming temperatures with some sunshine, budding trees, and pink flowers, and it may be feeling like spring. But temperatures may not stay so nice.

The Climate Prediction Center - a government forecast agency - issues three-month outlooks. And their outlook for the Pacific Northwest is a cool one. In fact, for the three-month period of March through May, the CPC says temperatures will likely be below average. It seems La Nina isn't done playing with our weather just quite yet.

So how chilly will it be? Well - that's why this is an outlook! =) It just gives an idea of the general trend to come over the next several months. The exact details - like how cool it will be and when - are left to guys and gails like me to figure out.

I'll keep you posted! Personally, I'm hoping the outlook is wrong...and that it actually ends up being warmer-than-average this spring. =)

Joe

Posted by KGW Meteorologist Joe Michaels at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's in the air-spring that is. You can feel it. The days are getting longer, temperatures are getting warmer and flowers are starting to pop up in gardens. For the record spring begins at 10:48 PM on March 19th, that's just 15 days away!

We are going to get a taste of some spring like weather over the next few days. High pressure is returning to the region forcing the storm track into Alaska.

The drier upper air pattern will allow for fair skies over the next few days. Once a pattern like this builds it takes a while for it to break down. We've seen this on and off for the past 6 weeks. The last time we had a significant rain event in Portland. I call that a more than 3/4 of an inch of rain was on January 30th.

Does this mean our cold wet weather is over? Certainly not. But our chance of snow is just about nil from now on and we're going to see temperatures continue to increase. Our average high by early April will be 60 degrees.

Regards
Dave

Posted by at 9:33 AM | Permalink