The Barometer Online

Kolu Westcott, a sophomore in liberal studies, adds a button to a snowman made in the MU Quad Thursday afternoon. Forming the snowman's outfit turned into a community effort. As the day progressed, passers-by expanded its wardrobe, adding an umbrella, v [Click to enlarge]

Snow? In March?

You bet your lunch money.

Early Thursday morning, a system moved in from the northwest, bringing a lot of cold air and enough moisture to provide repeated showers of large flakes, according to State Climatologist George Taylor.

And although the first round melted in the noon sunshine - prompting some to leave home without a jacket - less than two hours later, hail started pounding the streets.

But that quickly switched back to snow.

"It has to do with the vertical motion updrafts," Taylor said. "Hail forms higher up in the clouds while snow forms lower and with different temperatures."

The showers resulted from post-frontal conditions left over from Wednesday's storm system.

The hail late Wednesday night was only an appetizer, but even as more frozen precipitation fell, very little of it stuck on the Willamette Valley floor.

There was a big difference elevation-wise. Two inches of snow was recorded at 150 feet above the valley floor while OSU saw only one-half inch and the official measuring site at Highway 20 recorded only one-quarter inch, Taylor said.

Near Portland, as much as three inches fell above 1,000 feet and about 1,000 PGE customers were still without power Thursday morning, down from 8,600 customers affected Wednesday evening.

Valley floor roadways generally remained clear for commuters up and down the I-5 corridor.

"The ground is warm, and it's melting pretty fast," Taylor said. "Temperature-wise, it's marginal."

The air temperature is close to freezing, but Taylor doesn't expect anything to stick. Most of the snow and hail turned into a watery slush that added to existing puddles.

"There may be a little tomorrow, but it'll taper off and be much drier by the weekend," he said.

Still, Benton County officials issued warnings about potentially slippery roads.

Emergency Services Coordinator Peggy Peirson recommended checking conditions before leaving, slowing down and maintaining extra distance between vehicles.

That goes double for highways heading into the area mountain ranges, where traction tires and chains are required.

"They're getting hammered," Taylor said, referring to local ski resorts. "This has been a great year."

Mount Hood Meadows measured 264 total inches at its summit early Thursday morning. New snowfall at Mount Bachelor was 29.5 inches and Willamette Pass saw 21 inches fall by early afternoon.

Although February was kind of dry, the statewide snowpack average is 125 percent of normal, a major departure from last year's mere 40 percent, Taylor said.

But while precipitation falls in the Northwest, the Southwest continues to battle significant drought resulting from a La Niña pattern.

"The opposite of what's going on here tends to happen down there," he said.

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