SALEM, Ore. — Heavy winter snow and rain are setting up conditions similar to the 1996 floods that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage across much of the state.
The heavy snows 12 years ago were followed by warm storms with heavy rains that combined to flood most of the Willamette Valley and the major cities of Oregon.
On Tuesday, the 12th anniversary of the first day of heavy rains that triggered the flooding, even more snow had fallen than in 1996, officials said.
“It’s entirely possible we will get one of the dreaded rain-on-snow events,” said George Taylor, an Oregon State University climatologist. “That could easily lead to local flooding.”
He noted the Willamette River basin is at 190 percent of average snowpack.
The difference, however, is there are not any tropical storms headed toward Oregon that would bring warm rain, said Jon Lea, a snow survey supervisor for Oregon.
At the start of the 1996 flood, high temperatures jumped from 35 degrees to 55 degrees, according to National Weather Service data.
While mountain snow melted, 8 inches of rain fell in the Willamette Valley in four days, Taylor said.
This year, temperatures are expected to remain colder. High temperatures for the next several days in the Cascades are expected to range from below freezing to the low 40s. Rainfall also should be less.
“This is predicted to be different,” Taylor said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Meanwhile, Oregon National Guard crews were helping the mountain towns of Detroit and Idanha along Highway 22 east of Salem dig out from more than 12 feet of snow in the past six weeks, said Maj. Mike Braibish, an Oregon National Guard spokesman.
And the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the dams on the Willamette River, is watching the current conditions closely, officials said.
The reservoirs along the river currently are at lowered levels in preparation of handling runoff, said spokeswoman Amy Echols.
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