Thursday Looks Like a Good Day for Portlanders to Work From Home

A meteorologist estimates a 20% chance of 1/10 of an inch of ice coating the sidewalks.

Winter storm on the Central Eastside, January 2024. (Chris Nesseth)
By Aaron Mesh

Forecasters are increasingly confident that Portland will awake to snow and freezing rain Thursday, with a decent chance that ice coating the snowfall will turn sidewalks into a skating rink. In response, Multnomah County officials announced that six warming shelters will open tonight—double the number operating when the cold front began.

“With snow accumulations possibly already on the ground, ice could accumulate quickly on roadways and sidewalks,” wrote National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Liu. He estimated a 20% chance of one-tenth of an inch or more of ice coating surfaces in Portland. “With a combination of potentially gusty winds and ice accumulations, there is a possibility of power outages for any areas affected by one or both.”

Forecasters all but begged Portlanders to work from home Thursday, advising that the morning commute would be a mess, and the drive home even dicier. Yet most remained confident that the winter storm wouldn’t match the January 2024 event that paralyzed the city. “By Friday midday,” Liu wrote, “most precipitation west of the Cascades turns primarily over to rain.”

County officials said 356 people sought warmth at the five shelters open Tuesday night, when temperatures dipped into the low 20s. They added a sixth shelter for tonight, and TriMet said people could continue to ride buses and trains without charge in order to reach the shelters.

“These sunny skies are glorious, and they are also deceiving,” wrote TriMet spokesperson Tia York. “With temperatures expected to plunge below freezing tonight, we plan to run some MAX trains overnight to help prevent ice from building up on the overhead wires.” She also said the transit agency would place tire chains on 10 buses for the morning commute, but warned that those buses could travel no faster than 25 miles per hour.

Here are the locations of the six shelters Multnomah County and its nonprofit contractors are operating tonight:

An interactive map of places to get warm is available here.

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