Widespread snow or freezing rain later this week

On February 10, 2025By Littum

We are in some extended news coverage after Super-Super Bowl tonight on FOX 12, but figure I have to drop a quick weather note. Is it too much to ask for only a winter where we could avoid a weather event that closes the metro area? I was hoping that could be the case this season, but now it seems that something is significantly threatening for Thursday and Friday.

The basic is here on our daily forecast side. Be sure to read it every day.

Portland's forecast — Portland’s forecast(KPTV)

What i see now

The upcoming setup is how we get our regional or at least metro-covering ice cream/snowstorms. It is cold air in place and then milder Pacific Weather Systems ride over the cold air.
Arrival of rainfall is probably sometime on Thursday. We don’t yet know if it’s early or later in the day. Models are still working on it!
Most likely, rainfall is snow in the metro area on Thursday, possibly also south in the valley.
Most likely, rainfall would turn to freeze rain in the valley at a time later Thursday or Friday morning.
There is no significant heating southern wind before at least Saturday … but this aircraft mass is not almost as cold to start as Jan ’24, Feb ’23 or Dec ’22 events. These are all events that “close” the metro area for at least two days.
At this point, it seems that the coast could come by with very little frozen rainfall, but the gorge would be stuck in the cold until at least early Sunday.

I think we’ll be between one of these two scenarios …

Worst case

The I-5 corridor is snow covered with many centimeters on Thursday, everything shuts down, we remain frozen Friday and/or switch to freezing rain. Only on Saturday there is a slow thaw, and much of the subway has snow -covered/ice.

Best cases

The I-5 corridor gets some light snow or spotted freezing rain at a time Thursday, we remain frozen Thursday night, then it is mainly dry Friday and life resumes. Only 1 ″ snow or less fell and roads are completely fine at noon Friday … Valentine’s Day is saved!

To summarize, you need to think now that your life plans may need to change both Thursday and Friday. This should be a nightmare for bakeries and florists! Sorry for the timing of Valentine’s Day! I have already told my wife (working in schools) that there is a good chance that she may not work on Thursday or Friday.

I also have great confidence that we start on Sunday we are heading into a milder weather pattern … rainy and 50s.