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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 23, 2005 Warm, wet Christmas ahead for Valley By Mark Freeman For the Tidings The shift from record cold to record warm temperatures in Oregon means holiday drivers can expect wet, but not white roadways, and snowplow drivers should be home for Christmas. The Christmas weekend is shaping up weather-wise as a complete opposite of last year, when a series of snowstorms triggered Interstate 5 closures and left holiday motorists stranded. With high temperatures in the 50s on the Rogue Valley floor and snow levels around 7,000 feet, the forecast that calls for tapered-off rains today through Christmas is an early present to those charged with keeping highways open and safe for holiday travelers. “That’s a bonus for us,” says Trooper Bill Matson of the Oregon State Police patrol office in Central Point. “The weather forecast is one of the things we really look at, and it sounds favorable to us.” The lack of snow forecast for Interstate 5 passes like Siskiyou Summit and Mount Sexton mean skeletal state highway crews as well. During storms, the Oregon Department of Transportation would have a dozen people at a time working snowplows and other equipment just to keep I-5 flowing across the Oregon-California border, ODOT District Manager John Vial says. If the current forecast holds, ODOT likely will have only three people working at a time, with the rest sent home but on stand-by alert just in case the weather turns, Vial says. “We tell them, ‘We think you can go home, but don’t drink the spiked eggnog and stay near the phone,’ “ Vial says. The spike in warm weather includes a record high 59 degrees on Tuesday in Medford and weather close to 60 degrees on Wednesday as well. The series of rain showers left a total of .83 inches of rain this week at the National Weather Service office at the Medford airport. That included a flurry of rain that dumped a quarter-inch of rain at the airport in a one-hour period around 2 p.m. Thursday, says Larry Jacobs, a hydrometeorological technician for the weather service. It follows a week of record-low temperatures and lands Oregon’s snowpack levels just a hair under average. “You take that cold period and the warm period together, and everything looks normal,” says Jon Lea, Oregon’s snow-survey supervisor for the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland. “But nothing has been normal.” This week’s weather is a precursor to the particular form of holiday storm series that historically have brought the heaviest flood events to the Rogue River basin. This week’s rains have sunk into mountain snows, swelling the water content to where it is like a full sponge, Lea says. That makes the mountain “ripe” for producing excessive runoff should the Pineapple Express — those rare warm, wet and heavy storms that sweep in from the southwest — route through Southern Oregon, Lea says. But forecasts call for a 30 percent chance of rain this weekend, well short of the problematic, Lea says. “It’s not like the 4, 5 or 6 inches of rain associated with a Pineapple Express event,” he says. “I’d like it to cool off a little. “We’d like to keep the snow in the mountains and not in our rivers at this point,” Lea says. On Mount Ashland, skiers awoke Thursday to 3 inches of new snow, leaving the upper mountain with a 67-inch base and a 31-inch base at the lodge. On the highways, Matson says troopers will be out in force to curb impaired drivers and enforce everything from Oregon’s mandatory seat-belt laws to dangerous driving. Troopers will focus primarily on I-5, which will swell with travelers today and Saturday and again all next week — with only Christmas Day historically sporting the only holiday traffic hiatus, Matson says. Vial warns motorists not to read too much into pre-Christmas weather reports and let their guard down. “Weather forecasters aren’t perfect,” Vial says. “People still need to be prepared for poor weather. They still need to carry (tire) chains and a blanket.” DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Free Music Downloads Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks Online Casinos FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products best online casino teleconferencing High-End Gaming Computers Diamonds Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Discounted Website Hostings Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Myspace Layouts Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Student Loans Bonus Casino ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Canadian Pharmacy Casino Gambling Sites Backpacks Click Here .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams