PORTLAND, Ore. — Tuesday's ice storm is over, and temperatures throughout the Portland region finally climbed above freezing by early Wednesday afternoon after five days of winter storms and bitterly cold weather. But the city still started off the day encased in a layer of ice, and many areas struggled to thaw out during the afternoon with temperatures barely higher than 33 degrees.
"The ice doesn't go away very quickly when temperatures are still that cold," KGW chief meteorologist Matt Zaffino said Wednesday afternoon.
Most main roads were clear and moving smoothly by late afternoon, but many side roads and neighborhood roads remained icy late in the day.
The forecast for the next couple days likely won't speed things up, Zaffino said, because cold east winds from the Gorge are expected to pick up again on Thursday, and warmer south winds haven't been as strong as expected. Portland will still be above freezing during the day on Thursday, he said, but temperatures will stay in a range of 31-34 degrees overnight.
The past week's frigid conditions were caused by east winds funneling arctic air through the Columbia River Gorge to saturate the Willamette Valley, KGW meteorologist Rod Hill explained. A band of warmer air moved north across the valley on Tuesday afternoon, displacing the east winds and starting to raise temperatures — but it also dropped rain, which turned into freezing rain due to the still-chilly temperatures at ground level.
The east winds were gradually retreating back into the Gorge on Wednesday morning, Hill said, but that meant Portland itself would be the last part of the valley to get above freezing because it's closest to the mouth of the Gorge, and the eastern end of the metro area would lag behind the rest of the city.
"It's truly a wait-and-see, and we'll know when we're above freezing as soon as we are, in fact, above freezing," he said.
The Gorge itself will remain frozen all day, Hill said, and the Oregon Department of Transportation already announced that it is unlikely to be able to reopen Interstate 84 from Troutdale to Hood River any time Wednesday due to continued icy conditions on the freeway.
