Oregon Public Broadcasting

Wet flakes of snow fell early Tuesday in the Portland area before transitioning to rain. 

While a light coating of snow did stick in some areas, it was mostly the higher elevations that still had snow by mid-morning.  

The biggest accumulations of snow fell in the Tualatin Valley where up to an inch of the white stuff was reported on the ground. 

Many schools were on two-hour delays or using snow routes for their buses.  Most schools in Columbia County, where snow started falling Monday, were closed on Tuesday. 

Paul Tolleson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland, says the Columbia Gorge will likely see more snow Tuesday afternoon and overnight as another weather system moves through.

Paul Tolleson: “It’s still cold enough in the gorge that it will probably be all snow when this front goes through.”

Tolleson says we’ll probably see rain showers overnight and into Wednesday on the valley floor. 

But that could change later in the week. 

Paul Tolleson: “There’s another one of these systems coming in late Thursday, Thursday night.  It’s not out of the question we could see a little snow mixed in again with that one, but not a lot of accumulation.”

Tolleson says typically the chance of snow on the valley floor diminishes significantly by late-February.