We have just under 2 hours of okay diving conditions before things turn bad and roads freeze over this evening. I want to emphasize again how this “second” storm will have much more of an impact than the one last night. Salem never rose above freezing today and we won’t. In fact we will probably cool off 2 – 4 degrees this evening back into the upper 20s. Brrrrr!!!!!! Here’s another temp update as of 4PM. Notice the bitterly cold air east of the Cascades and the sharp contrast in temperature from Salem to Roseburg where it’s a balmy 53 degrees!! It’s always amazing to see just how powerful the gorge can be in bringing cold air into the northern Willamette Valley.

Freezing rain has been slowly accumulating on elevated surfaces and objects all day long as temps have not gone above 30. There’s a lot of freezing rain coming with this next storm system and I expect roads to freeze up quickly as soon as the sun goes down. I’m thinking half an inch to almost an inch of freezing rain will fall between now and noon Saturday which is going to take a major toll on trees and powerlines. I fully expect lot of power outages and downed trees tonight and tomorrow. Below is an estimated radar image for 10PM this evening. The dark pink and purple coloring around Salem indicates heavy freezing rain and with temps in the upper 20s. This is definitely going to end up as a top tier/historic February ice storm for Salem!