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Get out those skis; wet weather's back By BILL KETTLER A wet weekend cheered snow-starved skiers in Southern Oregon and Northern California, and more snow is expected today and Tuesday. Forecasters predicted as much as 5 inches of snow above 2,500 feet overnight and scattered snow showers throughout the day today. "At higher altitudes it could snow considerably more than that," said Murray Orr, of the National Weather Service's Medford station. "How much more? That's another question." Another storm was expected to arrive in Southern Oregon later today. Orr said snow levels would rise gradually as warmer air moves into Southern Oregon, but probably would be near 5,000 feet. The weekend storms brought a sigh of relief at Ski Ashland, where the snow pack had shrunk to barely 18 inches by New Year's Eve. Four inches of new snow fell at Ski Ashland on Saturday and an additional six inches on Sunday. "We were all smiles," said area manager Jeff Hanson. Hanson said Ski Ashland hopes to offer night skiing this week, and a decision could be made today, after the grooming crew evaluates the new snow. Hanson said efforts to remove rocks in the ski trails during previous summers allowed Ski Ashland to stay open with minimal snow during the Christmas holiday. "All the summer slope grooming we had done really paid off," he said. "Business was off quite a bit from a normal snowy Christmas holiday, but at least we were open." The Mount Shasta Board and Ski Park reported two inches of new snow on Sunday. Snow making machines continued to run during the weekend. December 1999 went into history as one of the driest Decembers in recent years. Just .89 inches of water trickled into the rain gauges at the National Weather Service office at the Medford airport _ far short of the 9.94 inches that fell in December 1996, and the 7.66 inches that fell in December 1995. Orr said Rogue Valley Decembers often run to precipitation extremes. The wettest December came in 1964, when 12.72 inches of rain fell; the driest December was 1976, with just .36 inches of rain. Saturday's snow and Sunday's showers marked the first significant precipitation in nearly three weeks. The last substantial rain (.23 inches) fell on Dec. 13. Fog settled across Southern Oregon as a ridge of high pressure air pushed storms north. Forecasters still predict above-average precipitation in January and February, and significantly cooler-than-normal temperatures in February. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA