WEATHER SUMMARY FOR SOUTHERN OREGON AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Our Pineapple Express / Atmospheric River event is proceeding right as forecast with no major surprises this morning. We are seeing very heavy rain in some parts of the area. Red Mound RAWS east of Brookings has recorded over 9 inches of rain int he last 24 hours. Parts of Douglas County have seen over 6. There is a flood warning at this time for the South Umpqua River near Tiller in Southwestern Douglas County. There is also an aerial flood warning for Central Coos County as they are seeing a lot of small stream flooding. In addition to that, the Coquille River in Coos County has a flood warning on it. Highway 138 from Roseburg east to Tokatee has been impacted by high water and rockfalls creating hazards for travelers there. Snow levels have run up to 9000 feet in the mountains as expected. And, as expected this produced big impacts on winter recreation. Mt. Ashland closed today due to the rain and to preserve the snowpack. I do not think this will rain all the snow pack away. I would look for them to reopen on Christmas Day as scheduled. And, they will have much better conditions. Look for the rain to continue through this evening and then it will taper off. There will be a chance for rain on Monday. But, Tuesday is looking good right now. Mostly sunny skies following some low clouds and fog in the valleys in the morning. Wednesday will see the arrival of the next weather maker, and a shift back to colder weather. We will see a system come into the area Wednesday. It will bring a cold front in and when that cold air gets here, snow levels will drop rapidly. We will see snow levels up near 9000 feet early on Wednesday morning. By Wednesday night / Christmas Eve, snow levels will be down to 2500 - 3000 feet. Yes, there is going to be accumulating snow for the mountains / passes, areas east of the Cascades, and in Northern California. Exactly how much is going to depend on many factors, but right now it looks like the mountains above 5000 feet will be seeing around 6 inches of snow, and then areas above 2500 feet will see 1 - 3 inches of snow by Christmas morning. This would give areas east of the Cascades and Northern California a White Christmas. I just do not see it happening in the Rogue Valley. Snow could mix in with the rain briefly early on Christmas morning...but as of now, there just is not going to be enough moisture left over to really work with by the time temps would support snow on the valley floor. Starting with Christmas Day, a ridge builds up and this will send us into several days of sunny skies. Of course, fog and low clouds are likely for the valleys in the mornings. But, once we get past Wednesday night / early Christmas morning, not seeing a weather maker out there until at least Sunday the 28th.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 19:00:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015