MT HOOD, Ore. — The next couple of days could be the most wild we have seen this winter a strong weather system moving through Monday night and into Tuesday.
There’s going to be heavy snow for both the coast range and the Cascades and there’s even a chance to see snow hit the valley floor. If you head over the mountain passes Monday night and into parts of Wednesday be ready for near whiteout conditions.
It wasn’t heavy snow that shut down Mount Hood Meadows on Monday, it was the windy conditions with gusts topping out at 60 miles per hour.
The closure meant many families spent the day playing at the Summit Ski in Government Camp.
Most of Monday brought cold rain showers for the mountains, but over the next couple of days, a strong front is expected to bring heavy snow and breezy conditions Monday night and into the middle part of the week.
“What we see is there could be two to three feet of snow through Tuesday and into Thursday and we'll have a lot of recovery to do because it's coming in with some pretty intense winds,” said Dave Tragethon, a spokesperson for Mount Hood Meadows.
It’s not going to be just the Cascades that see the heavy snow, so will the coast range.
Don Hamilton with ODOT says he’s paying close attention to all of the highways this week across the state. Hamilton said that the department has de-icer, snow plows and they are ready to go when conditions warrant it.
There’s even a chance we could see snow drop down to the metro area late Tuesday night and into Wednesday.
“As the week goes on, our crews are going to watch the conditions carefully especially here on the valley floor,” said Hamilton.