And how about our weather out there?
We begin here at 5:00 o'clock
with high winds, heavy rain and
snow in the gorge and cascades.
We're getting a dose of winter
time weather that's resulting in
both celebrations and headaches.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Laurel Porter.
Our recent storms are great
news for ski season,
but have also caused power
outages and issues on the roads.
Joe Raineri has a roundup of the
weather impact around the region.
Since this past weekend,
heavy snow showers have been
nonstop for the mountains.
We need this. We love this.
This is what we live for up here,
and government camp is coming back
to life with people who can't wait
to see the weather change up here.
It's a significant for sure.
I mean, my I cleared off my Jeep yesterday.
There's already another foot and
1/2 on it today, so it's crazy.
But who gets really excited to
see the snow this time of year?
Or the people who live in this town when
we get this much snow before Christmas?
It's awesome.
Says the morale is way better here in town.
You know Christmas is coming.
This latest storm also brought
snow through the West End of the
Columbia River Gorge in Hood River
for the first time this fall.
They saw about 5 inches overnight.
Such great weather. I mean,
I I'm enjoying every moment of it.
I'm looking at it. I'm like,
wow, this is a blessing. This
time around. The valley didn't
see any snow that stuck around,
but we saw plenty of rain and wind.
There was so much rain that fell overnight
Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.
It brought down trees and knocked out power.
Early Wednesday morning,
the Jefferson Street exit was closed off
Hwy 26 because of downed power lines.
And take a look at this semi truck that got
stuck in the middle of a landslide along
Hwy 30 between Astoria and Clatskanie.
The highway completely shut down all
day Wednesday and possibly longer,
when heavy rain caused this slide.
Odot says at least 10 truckloads of rock
and mud slid onto both lanes of the highway,
with more snow in the forecast for
the mountains and maybe the valley
folks who are no stranger to winter.
Driving have this advice about
driving in winter weather.
2
wheel drive ball tires.
Not the most recommended
thing for driving up here,
but you know also patience is key.
Patience is key.
And just to be clear,
you are a man of the mountain.
Yes Sir. I mean you're ready to go.
You wanna see? Let's see, let's see.
When this shows you how tough this guy is.
This kind of weather doesn't scare.
Ohh got another layer on no shirt.
Yeah, yeah let's go hit the list man.
Onto the lift.
There he goes. Ski season is here.
No shirt, no problem.
There's plenty of snow and you can see a
lot of excitement on Mount Hood right now.
Our Drew Carney caught up with that guy
at government camp this morning who
certainly was happy for the winter weather.
Mount Hood Meadows and timberline
have both open lifts this week and
today Mount Bachelor in Central
Oregon also got ski season started.
Chief meteorologist Matt Defino
joins us now tracking all that snow.
Matt
y'all trying to keep my shirt on.
That was a pretty exciting
forecast with all the snow and
Anthony Lakes in Northeast Oregon
is gonna open this weekend too.
So won't be long before everybody's
in full operation up at Timberline.
Check this out.
In the last two days 30 inches of new snow.
The base is right around 5 feet so
it won't be long before the all the
the skiers in Oregon are under full
operation which is great to see.
I'm showing you this picture other
camera timberline because if you look
at the corner right here you'll see
that it is still snowing up in the
mountains and there is a winter weather
advisory there but you look at radar and.
It's not a massive widespread area
precipitation like last night,
but rather these lines of showers.
However, those showers can produce a
lot of snow where it is going to snow
and then rain below that elevation.
You see there's more offshore here,
so those will continue to roll
on in during the overnight hours.
Now as far as the valley goes,
it's really going to be an elevation thing.
If you get up above the valley floor,
up say 500 feet and above, then yeah,
there's a chance of maybe an inch of
snow from one of the stronger showers.
But for most of us,
we're not going to wake up.
Snow on the grass or on the lawn
and sticking snow in the valley,
that's not gonna happen.
In fact, look at the clearing that
we're getting out there right now.
That's the reserve golf course.
It's beautiful and still at 42.
We warmed up quite a bit today,
but it is going to be snow above
500 to 1000 feet tomorrow.
And up in the Cascades,
we have a winter weather advisory
continuing overnight tonight.
So yes, it is still game on in the mountains.
All of the mountains of Oregon,
that winter weather advisory
through tomorrow morning,
another 8 inches of snow for the valleys.
Probably not this time,
Laurel.
Yeah. Name on yeah,
there's so much water on the roads, too.
Makes driving a little bit
difficult in some places.
Thank you, Matt.
Seattle and Western Washington are
getting their share of winter weather,
too, right now.
Lowland Snow has been falling
in the city and surrounding
areas since yesterday morning.
That's also resulted in power outages,
as well as hundreds of delayed
and cancelled flights at Seatac.
Today, Portland City Council approved
funding from Mayor Wheeler's plan
to take on the homeless crisis.
About $27 million will be put toward that.
Effort and that includes building 6 large
city sanctioned homeless camps in Portland.
Residents will have access to food,
substance abuse treatment and the
camps will have security patrols.
The mayor's plan also faces in a ban
on unsanctioned camping over 18 months.
21 million of that 27 is coming from
over collected taxes and money not
yet spent from Multnomah County's
office of Homeless services.
The cost of replacing a catalytic
converter can be upwards of $1500,
which is a large sum of money,
especially for those who live
paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. As
you heard right, they're replacing the
catalytic converter can be costly.
This is troubling since catalytic converter
thefts are such a big problem nationwide.
And that includes right here in
Oregon and Southwest Washington.
None of that's lost on an oil change company
that's now stepping up to combat the crime.
Mike Benner joins us with details. Hi, Mike.
Yeah, hey there, Laurel.
It turns out that the mechanics
at Jiffy Lube are doing more than
just oil changes these days.
They're getting into the crime
fighting game by helping us keep and
hold on to those valuable car parts
on the underbelly of our vehicles.
Vehicle comes in, we're going to grab
our high viz high temp paint right here
inside the Jiffy Lube on
Southwest Canyon Rd in Beaverton.
We're gonna go underneath the vehicle
and we're gonna spray. The cat's a
mechanic shows us a new service the oil
change company is rolling out in hopes
of combating catalytic converter thefts,
something they're seeing far too often.
Customer comes into the store saying,
hey, what's wrong with my vehicle?
It's making a bunch of noise, right?
We we get underneath and we see that
catalytic converter has been taken. And
unfortunately, plenty of people in Oregon
and Southwest Washington can relate.
In fact, in Clark County,
since the start of the year,
more than 450 catalytic
converters have been stolen.
That's more than one.
Today in Washington County,
catalytic converter thefts jumped from
a measly 28 in 2020 to 239 in 2021.
And investigators believe that number
would have skyrocketed in 2022
had detectives with the Beaverton
Police Department not foiled a
catalytic converter theft ring.
Over the summer,
the suspects accused of stealing
$22 million worth of catalytic
converters in Oregon,
Washington and California.
Some of those stolen car parts.
Ending up as far away as the East Coast,
younger people and those with lower
incomes are disproportionately
affected by these crimes.
The cost of replacing a catalytic
converter can be upwards of $1500,
which is a large sum of money,
especially for those who live
paycheck to paycheck to paycheck.
We're going to start with the one,
and with that in mind,
Jiffy Lube is launching the catalytic
Converter Identification initiative.
In a free 5 to 10 minute service.
A mechanic will spray your catalytic
converter with a high temperature paint,
then engrave the vehicle
identification number on it.
This makes the catalytic
converter wanted for its.
Russia's metals.
Utterly useless to a thief.
As a business, we want to do what
we can to help the Community,
especially when we have the
facility that really is almost
perfect for doing this, right?
Right. But only time will tell if this
theft prevention works. There we go.
What is clear right now is sitting back
idly and doing nothing is not an option,
especially for the staff at Jiffy
Lube who themselves have been victims
of catalytic converter thefts.
And if we can help deter these
thefts and help with prosecution,
we're absolutely going to do our best.
Alright, if you want to take advantage
of this free service from Jiffy Lube,
all you have to do is go to one of
their locations in the Portland,
Salem or Vancouver area.
And one more thing worth mentioning,
lawmakers are doing what they can do as well.
In fact, just this year,
the Washington State legislature
passed a bill that tackles
catalytic converter thefts.
And just this month at the federal level,
Senator Ron Wyden along with a colleague
introduced legislation that does the same.
Laurel.
Well, we hope this puts a dent
in those thefts. Thank you, Mike.
Brazen thefts across Portland and
business owners are tired of it.
Just this week, thieves have crashed
into two businesses to steal things,
including an entire ATM machine.
Early Tuesday morning,
two people backed a van through a
gas station in Portland's Irvington
neighborhood to steal an ATM.
It happened at the fast
track on Northeast Broadway.
After getting away with that crime,
the suspect stopped in another
parking lot on E Burnside,
where they tried to break
into another ATM and that.
Caused a fire on Black Friday.
Police say someone used a car
to break the entry door at the
Pearl REI store in order to steal
clothing before leaving the scene.
Portland residents say they're
ready for a change.
Because Portland encourages small business,
they want to see small businesses thrive.
But at the same time,
the spike in crime is heavily
impacting small businesses everywhere.
Police still need help
identifying the suspects in the
ATM theft at the gas station.
That's a distinctive jacket
that one thief has on,
so take a look at that.
If you know anything about that crime,
let police know.
If you want to look at the crime
stats in any area of the city,
we have a link in our story at kgw.com.