You know, one of the big stories
we're following today is snow.
This was the drive on I-84
in the gorge last night,
and it's still snowing this morning,
the National Weather Service
saying the higher elevations
have picked up at least 5 inches.
And all morning long,
we've been checking right
in with our Drew Carney,
who's been live at government
camp. He's been doing all sorts of stuff,
catching snowflakes, building a snowman.
What you doing now? What you doing
now, drew? Yeah.
That that that snowman effort was,
wasn't the best we started to.
Little snowman and about,
about four minutes in,
the plow came through and knocked
down the very base of that snowman.
So we were outside.
What is the Huckleberry Inn
restaurant here at government camp?
We've been out here.
When I say we,
I mean myself and Eric Patterson,
our sunrise photographer,
behind the camera.
We got here to government camp at about 4:30,
and at that point the snow was falling,
but not heavy.
And then a few minutes later,
probably like at 4:45 on the dot,
it really started to pick up.
And it has been snowing hard ever since,
of course, yesterday, a big day.
Up here on the mountain
for Mount Hood Meadows,
opening up some lifts at
9:00 o'clock yesterday.
We talked about that earlier this hour.
They're expecting more snow not only today
but throughout the rest of this week,
which could mean a huge big first
weekend of skiing and snowboarding
up here at Timberline and Meadows
and perhaps even ski bowl.
That news still to come,
hopefully later this week.
One of my goals is I spelled out
to you both both 15 minutes ago,
was to get a live interview.
I promise you, Brendan and Christine.
I have tried.
There has not been a lot of people
walking around here at this hour of the day.
There have been some.
I've approached them all,
afforded them the opportunity to join
us live on TV and talk about the snow
falling on Mount Hood this morning.
And they all politely decline the
opportunity to be live on TV.
Eric, can we even see this?
Do you see that gentleman sitting at the
counter inside the huckleberry in still?
I don't know if you can see that shot or not.
I know you'll do your best because I'll
walk in real quickly one last time.
And I did strike up a conversation earlier.
Sir, this is the last time I'll ask you.
Let do you wanna be live on TV with
me this morning or no, that's a no.
Thank you again, right.
And OK,
I just want to make sure that Christine
and Brenda know that I am trying my best.
That was a that was a no,
thank you.
But you know what,
I don't blame him because my goodness,
it is a lot warmer inside this restaurant
than it is outside there in the snow.
Eric.
You've done this a long time.
You know how to handle
yourself in these conditions.
I'll let you have at it.
Eric Patterson now live by himself
in the snowstorm on Mount Hood,
Brenda Christine and Rodney Hill.
I'm sending it back to you.
Also, you you deserve a hot cup
of coffee or a pancake or whatever
they're serving at this hour.
Eric, get inside. You need some hazard pay.
You guys have been awesome out
there this morning. Thank you both.
Hey, let's bring in Rod.
The numbers on all the snowfall up there.
Well, First off I'm I'm surprised
it's hasn't been more windy
up in government camp and drew shots.
That front is in the Cascades right now.
It hasn't moved all the way
up to government camp yet.
So when's could still pick up?
Timberline reports 17 new.
It's more like 9 down in the ski boat
government camp area from what I can tell.
I'm kind of estimating that.
And then Meadows is getting upwards
of about 14 inches of new snow bases
going into the weekend for those resorts
being open will be 50 plus inches.
On the ground, that's terrific news.
Radar behind me. So the front
has moved through Portland.
The wind threat is over the wind
advisory long since expired.
Scattered showers coming in from the West.
As we're getting ready to leave
the steady precipitation part of
our day here in the valley again,
it will turn into a scattered shower.
Here's the gorge. And this is interesting.
You have the radar and this is
usually pretty gosh darn accurate.
Radar is now showing it's all rain
along I-84 through Bonneville,
Carson, starting to get some rain.
That's through Cascade locks
and Stevenson area.
We still have snow.
132 being reported in Hood River here.
The temperature?
Yeah, Hood River 32 the Dows has
been above freezing out in the gorge.
Storm warning set to expire at
8:00 o'clock this morning by the
way and the guards will transition
into rain during the day,
so if you can hold off for
traveling for a little bit you
would probably be wise to do so.
47 is the temperature here in Portland
will be generally low to mid 40s
throughout the day with scattered rain
showers and then a mix of showery
precipitation out east right now.
Don't forget tomorrow we still think
there could be some dustings of snow to
start the day in scattered areas for what?
Be a chilly Thursday.
Chris McGinnis,
the latest on our traffic this morning.
Yeah,
Hwy 26 rod. The good news is
that Hwy 26 has reopened.
We had about a 90 minute closure of the
sunset between the Vista Ridge Tunnel
and Sylvan because of downed power lines.
The road has reopened but traffic
is running a little thick. In fact,
let me show you the live lookout near 217.
We're getting back to kind
of normal traffic flow,
but obviously it's wet,
it's sloppy and it's slow on Hwy 26.
It's extra slow on Burnside.
A lot of folks using that barns to
Burnside route to get around the previous.
Closure of Hwy 26,
so that is likely plugged up.
The bottom line is you're gonna need extra
time in from the West side this morning,
be it on Burnside or on Hwy 26.
I also want to point out that
because of a landslide yesterday,
Hwy 30 is closed about halfway
between Clatskanie and Astoria
and there is no update,
or should I should say,
there's no estimate from ODOT as to
when they expect to get Hwy 30 reopen,
but we'll certainly keep you posted
on that and all the local traffic
as we go through this messy morning.
We'll be right back.