Windy storm rakes Northwest, snow level heads for 1,000 feet
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PORTLAND, Ore. - A powerful storm rolled over the Northwest Sunday night into Monday morning, giving residents a taste of winter just four days before the cold season officially begins on Dec. 21.
The High Wind Warning for Willamette Valley locations was lifted Monday morning after the region was raked by gusting winds at all elevations overnight. Warnings remain in place for other locations, according to the National Weather Service.
Around the Portland area, strong winds pushed trees down onto cars and power lines, leaving about 20,000 customers in the dark Monday morning according to posts on power utility websites. Crews were in the field working to restore the power. Check outage lists
A power line became entangled in a tree and began arcing brightly in North Portland. It was repaired quickly by a crew. Another outage left homes in the dark in Beaverton.
Wind and power outages forced some schools to cancel classes or delay opening Monday morning. Updated closure list
Wind warnings remained in effect for many areas, especially along the Oregon Coast and at upper elevations.
A Blizzard Warning was in effect until Monday evening for the Cascades but was downgraded to a Winter Storm Warning at about 10:30 a.m.
Blizzard Warnings sent out Sunday by the National Weather Service for upper elevations seemed to indicate that lower elevations were also at risk but that was due to the county involved in the warning. Blizzard conditions are not expected at lower elevations.
However, KATU Meteorologist Rhonda Shelby said the freezing level will drop during the day on Monday evening to about 1,000 feet, making snow in the highest hills around Portland a possibility.
"Many of you will see snow flying this week," Shelby said in a post to Twitter. She said to expect a possible rain-snow mix on the valley floor, with up to an inch of snow sticking above 1,000 feet.
Watch a forecast update with Rhonda:
Travel over mountain passes was treacherous with limited visibility due to blowing snow. ODOT officials are urging caution and preparation for anyone attempting to drive over mountain passes.
- School closures and delays
- Power outage info: PGE Pacific Power Clark Public Utilities
- LIVE Traffic Video
- ODOT Incident Reports
- ODOT road condition updates
- OR Pass Cameras
- WA Pass Cameras
- PDX Air Travel
Up in the Cascades, road crews worked to keep passes open as the wind howled, snow blew sideways and over a foot of new snow piled up at ski resorts. "It's really an adventure up here," one driver said as he worked to clear a roadway.
However, conditions were not expected to be good for skiing until the storm passed. Check the KATU Ski Report Page
Shelby said ski resorts could get several feet of new snow out the current weather pattern over the next several days.
It's 5:30 pm in N. Clark County about 650 feet. Started snowing steady about 5pm. Temp dropped from 38 (my high today) to current temp 34.9 and dropping. Bring on the snow, I have nowhere I have to be--Whoo Hoo!!!
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That was freakin' crazy last night, for a valley wind. I have people's shed debris in my yard and we were awakened at about three a.m. by what sounded like a gunshot, which was a transformer exploding around 12-Mile Corner.
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The freezing level is around 3,000 feet right now and certain to drop this afternoon. At the summit of Mt. Adams it's about -2F according to the NOAA.
Well, it started snowing again here (Detroit/Idanha) a hour ago @ 1700.. Â
1000 feet? I believe this is a hyperbole
 @thelegoperson2 Here's the flight track of somebody who tried to fly to Troutdale airport yesterday despite dire weather forecasts for the region.
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http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N93CN
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Trying to get through icing conditions in gusty winds and low clouds is a pilot's nightmare. You have to learn to listen to reports, and to take them seriously while preparing for actual conditions to be even worse. It's actually a pretty good system; you don't want to teach people that the weather forecasters are always wrong and always overreact because they're usually correct about things like freezing levels. You would rather teach your teenage driver on his way to the slopes to heed the warnings and err on the side of caution.
 @thelegoperson2 So I guess that snow I saw at my house for the better part of an hour on Saturday at 350 feet was falling ironically. Â
The web jokers love posting still shots of Rhonda that make her look BAKED - I have to admit I enjoy them too :)
Would be awesome to get some snow down low, for Christmas. Hope the levels keep dropping. =)
High wind?
They call it a strong breeze at the Oregon coast.
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As the transplants to Oregon recover from cowering in fear last night...
 @Mipsfer We have metal debris from other people's yards in our property and our neighbor's shed was destroyed. Transformers exploded down the street and you could hear the whipping sound of people's gutters being ripped off all night. Pretty crazy.
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I grew up in the Columbia Gorge. My daughter was up there last night and slept right through it.
 @Mipsfer What's even sadder is the people that have lived here their entire life, yet drive around at 15mph because its raining and a little windy. But of course these are the same people that consistently rate their own driving skill as above average.
 @axpman  @Mipsfer One time a TV producer from LA was filming a project I was doing for one of the cable networks, and we had to go down to the studio in Oregon City in a typical Oregon rainstorm. She was driving but she practically stopped on the highway in full-on hysteria. I had to take over driving. I think she got out of Oregon as fast as she could.
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Another time we were filming at the Tillamook blimp hangar (the vid is on display by the P-47) and a couple of soap opera actors came up in the convertable white-leather-interior Mustang and left the top down while they were parked one sunny March morning in Tillamook. Probably about 2" by mid-afternoon.Â