Oregon braces for winter storm: Warning issued for Willamette Valley, Portland under advisory
Winter storm warnings have been issued across northwest Oregon, including the entire Willamette Valley, with the biggest impacts coming in the foothills and the mountains.
The parade of cold and wet storms will bring the chance for Willamette Valley snow multiple times this week and could delay school in some areas on Tuesday, particularly in the higher elevations.
Warning issued for Salem and Mid-Valley
A winter storm warning has been issued for Salem, McMinnville, Woodburn, Stayton, and Dallas.
Additional snow of 1 to 3 inches at the valley floor, and 2 to 6 inches above 500 feet, is forecast, with the warning ending at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
"Plan on slippery road conditions," NWS wrote. "The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute.
"Snow will be heavy and wet, posing risks for those shoveling the snow. The heavy, wet snow may also bring down tree limbs and power lines, potentially leading to isolated power outages."
Warning issued for Eugene and south valley
A winter storm warning has been issued for Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon and the rest of the southern Willamette Valley.
Additional snow accumulations of 2 to 5 inches, with the heaviest above 500 feet, has been forecast until 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
"Plan on slippery road conditions," NWS wrote. "The hazardous conditions could impact the morning commute. Snow will be heavy and wet, posing risks for those shoveling the snow. The heavy, wet snow may also bring down tree limbs and power lines, potentially leading to isolated power outages."
Advisory issued for Portland
In the greater Portland Metro Area, a winter weather advisory has been issued for another inch, except 1 to 3 inches in the outer suburbs.
The advisory is in place until 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
New winter storm warning issued for mountain and foothills towns
A winter storm warning has been issued for the Willamette Valley and mountain foothills, and through the Columbia River Gorge, for 2 to 6 inches of snow. This mostly impacts higher elevation towns such as Mill City and Sweet Home outside the central Willamette Valley, along with McKenzie Bridge and Oakridge outside Eugene.
The heaviest snow will be around and above 1,000 feet.
The warning is in place until 6 p.m.
Mountain roads and passes
The higher mountain elevations above 1,500 feet are forecast to see 2 to 8 inches of snow with winds up to 35 mph. That will make travel difficult over places such as Santiam Pass, Willamette Pass and through the Mount Hood area.
Higher amounts — up to a foot — appear possible into Tuesday.
Warming shelter status
Salem homeless organizations did not plan to open warming shelters Monday night as lows were expected to remain above freezing.
Warming shelters are expected to be activated Tuesday night.
In the past seven days, the Salem warming network operated emergency warming shelters for four nights.
"In that time period, we provided 582 emergency warming shelter bed nights, serving 324 unique guests and provided 353 daytime day center utilizations," Robert Marshall, emergency manager for the ARCHES Project, said. "For perspective, we provided more emergency warming shelter bed nights in the four nights than we have in any one single month."
The shelters continue to look for volunteers. More information on the Salem Warming Network is available at mwvcaa.org.
Lane County pop-up emergency shelter Egan Warming Centers will activate Tuesday night and be on standby through Thursday night. Standby means volunteer shifts are posted for those days, but the official announcement won't be made until 5 p.m. the day before the activation.
The centers, run by St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, pop up around the Eugene Springfield area when temperatures reach or fall below 30 degrees. The effort is dependent on volunteers. Training opportunities are offered regularly over Zoom and in person. Volunteers work an approximately four-hour shift: evening set-up, the first half of the night, the second half of the night or clean-up in the morning.
Text the word “Join” to 541-730-3071 for text alerts for Egan Warming Centers’ activation status. Anyone interested in hosting a site or volunteering can email eganwarmingcenter@svdp.us.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oregon winter storm: Warning for Willamette Valley, Portland under advisory
