Seems like the weather has gone postal. Salem is experiencing it’s wettest day in years, possibly decades??? Hard to know as we still have 6 more hours to go before the day ends. As of 6PM the airport had recorded 2.27″ of rain!! Fortunately the snow levels were low or else flooding could have been much worse. Even so, I see many of the local rivers including the Mary’s River, Pudding, River, and Luckiamute River are all rising quickly today. The Willamette here in Salem is also forecast to top out a good 10 feet higher than it is right now by the time Friday rolls around. I could see the road from the Independence bridge closing for a couple of days if the water gets high enough. And then there was the wind. A number of power outages were reported last night with the gusty winds. Gusts reached 45 to almost 50mph in some locations.

Meanwhile I-84 through the gorge has been closed since last night due to heavy snow and freezing rain. Some locations out near Hood River and Cascade Locks have picked up close to 2 feet of snow!! Highway 20 (Santiam Pass) is also closed due to heavy snow. In fact at this point it would be wise to check your route before going anywhere far as we have cool air moving in tonight causing snow levels to drop back down close to the valley floor again…

Anyone could see a slushy inch or two of snow tonight with the heavier showers. I’m not expecting it for most of us, but know it’s a possibility.

We for sure switch to regular rain by tomorrow mid morning at the latest. More rain Tuesday, showers on Wednesday, and another powerful and very moist storm moves in for Thursday and Friday. By the time we reach Sunday we could be looking at a grand total of 5+ inches of rain for the week (counting today’s total)! I hope you all own boats….

Stay safe out there! You just endured one of the darkest days we have had this winter. Very minimal sunlight this time of year anyway. Add in heavy rain most of the day, and it’s no wonder there was not much sunlight making it through the clouds, so treat yourself to something nice tonight haha, you made it!