3/3 Oregon Weather 6 AM: Winter Weather Advisory

Good morning. Oregon. I'm Aaron Jolly. Step outside right now and you'll feel 49 degrees under gray skies. Enjoy the quiet. Because there's a front gathering offshore. And it's coming for us. In the next 24 hours. An upper level trough is sliding in from the Pacific. That's the engine behind everything today. Your morning stays dry. Use it. Run errands, walk the dog, do whatever needs doing outside. Because after noon, rain starts falling across the Willamette Valley. Highs reach 58 degrees before the front pushes through tonight with steady rain and gusts to 18 miles an hour. Lows settle near 48 degrees. Head south into the southern Willamette Valley and you buy yourself a little more time. Just a slight chance of rain mid afternoon, high of 57 degrees. But by 7 P.M., rain arrives and falls heavy at times. Now swing east into Central Oregon. You folks have the best seat in the house today. Mostly cloudy, 57 degrees. And bone dry until after 1 A.M. Then rain creeps in and temperatures slide to 38 degrees. Wednesday is where things get interesting. Colder air aloft destabilizes everything. Showers and thunderstorms pop statewide. Valley highs drop into the low 50s. Central Oregon falls to 45 degrees with gusts hitting 26 miles an hour. Cascade pass travelers, listen up. A Winter Weather Advisory kicks in at 4 A.M. Wednesday and runs through 10 P.M. Six to eleven inches of snow above 4500 feet. Santiam and Willamette Passes will get buried. Looking ahead, rain chances stick around through the weekend. Saturday offers the best window to dry out. Then another system rolls in Monday. One more thing worth smiling about. We're gaining over three minutes of daylight every day now. Spring equinox is just two weeks out. I'll be watching that Wednesday storm all night. For the extended outlook, check the latest forecast as confidence improves. That's your forecast — we'll be back tomorrow.