School officials’ latest test: icy roads

If school superintendents didn’t slide into a ditch early this morning, then you’re probably sitting in class today, kids.

Both Eugene School District Superintendent George Russell and Bethel School District Superintendent Colt Gill planned to be out testing the roads this morning, along with other district personnel. The Springfield School District’s four-person road-testing team of department heads will be out checking their brakes, too.

“If it’s snow, we can plow through it,” Bethel School District spokesman Pat McGillivray said. “But the ice makes things really dangerous.”

Indeed, with a few snowflakes threatening to fall in Lane County last night and today, that is not as worrisome as potentially slippery roads, said Jeremiah Pyle, a spokesman with the National Weather Service in Portland. Especially with possible record-low temperatures in the teens heading our way tonight and early Wednesday morning.

“Black ice could be an issue (today),” Pyle said.

With plenty of rain Monday falling in the Eugene-Springfield area Monday, and temperatures expected to drop below freezing overnight, icy streets are more than possible. And temperatures are expected to plunge again Tuesday night and drop into the teens early Wednesday morning.

An arctic front moving south from Canada is the culprit. The rain and snow are expected to move out of the area by early today, Pyle said. But remaining moisture on the ground combined with freezing temperatures could continue to pose problems for drivers.

While the Willamette Valley floor was awaiting the white stuff or the black ice stuff or whatever stuff Monday, higher elevations and other areas of the state were already experiencing it.

Oregon State Police responded to about 10 crashes on the Santiam Pass on Monday because of snow, high winds and poor visibility.

If you are thinking of traveling that way today, you might want to reconsider.

Snow in the Willamette Valley is unusual but, of course, not unprecedented, according to researchers at Oregon State University.

“When you have a storm system that mixes with cold, Arctic air you can get snow,” Kathie Dello, a research assistant at OSU’s Oregon Climate Service office, said in a news release Monday. “But it may be premature to say that this is a result of a La Niña winter. What we can say is that these types of events are more likely to happen when there is a La Niña.”

La Niña is the cyclical ocean phenomenon that features cooler-than-normal water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific and results in wetter-than-normal (if there can be such a thing) Northwest winters.

An inch and a half of snow fell in the valley on Nov. 12, 1955, followed by 3.5 inches four days later, preceding a winter that saw a total of almost 16 inches fall in the Cor­vallis area, Dello said.

“It’s probably not going to be a huge event except in the higher regions,” Pyle said of expected snowfall in the Eugene-Springfield area. “But it’s going to be cold.”

Today’s high is expected to be as low as 30 degrees, with a high of 35 expected Wednesday, Pyle said. The overnight low tonight is expected to be between 15 and 20 degrees.

The record low is 18, according to Accuweather.