Winter weather
• Driving news and traffic cams
If you're sick of the snow, the ice, the barely navigable roads and the apocalyptic news coverage that's followed, we bring glad tidings.
Warmer weather is on its way -- slowly.
After the worst snowstorm in decades paralyzed parts of the Portland-metro area Monday, warmer air and rain are expected to move in by Friday and melt away a foot or more of snow. This doesn't mean we're in the clear. A winter storm watch has been issued and there may be snow and freezing rain Wednesday, especially at higher elevations.
But the National Weather Service in Portland predicted high temperatures around 40 by the weekend.
Not warm by normal standards, maybe, but much better than the teens and 20s that have been the norm lately.
"There will be some melting mid-week," meteorologist David Elson said Monday. "But the real meltdown will come Friday and into the weekend."
If that prediction holds, it will end more than 10 days of icy weather that culminated in a massive snowfall Saturday and Sunday. Snow measured in downtown Portland approached 13 inches Monday afternoon, rivaling a storm in 1980 that dumped 16inches on the city, according to the National Weather Service.
Portland's biggest snowfalls in history? Thirty-two inches in 1893, 28 inches in 1916 and 22inches in 1884.
The latest storm may rank among the top 10 for the area since the state started keeping records in 1880.
It stranded motorists, disrupted bus and train service, canceled flights and led to power outages across the region. Police said the cold may have contributed to the accidental death of a couple who apparently suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning Saturday. They were discovered sitting in a truck inside a Gresham garage and police think they were either trying to get warm or warm up their car when they were asphyxiated.
By Monday, the snow and ice had forced TriMet to cancel all but its busiest bus routes. At one point, more than 100 buses were stalled in the snow. Portland Mayor Tom Potter sent non-essential city employees home at 1:30 p.m. and planned to decide early today whether city offices would be open.
U.S. 26 and Oregon 6 were closed from western Washington County to the coast. And all lanes of Interstate 84 from Troutdale to Hood River were closed. Trucks idled around the Flying J Travel Plaza in Troutdale, where some drivers have been stranded since Friday.
"Nobody's coming into Portland and nobody's leaving Portland on I-84," ODOT spokeswoman Christine Miles said.
Truckers weren't the only ones who were stuck.
Most schools were closed several days last week -- some all week -- and Monday marked the start of the winter break. Lots of parents will be glad to see the snow melt away this weekend.
"I've got two kids, 5 and 2 years old, and we've been cooped up in the house for eight days now," said Josh Bancroft, who lives in Washington County and works for Intel. "We're getting on each other's nerves."
-- Stephen Beaven; stevebeaven@news.oregonian.com