VALE – Brace for a blast of winter weather, Malheur County.
The National Weather Service on Monday afternoon issued a winter storm warning for the lower Treasure Valley, taking hold Tuesday evening and lasting through Wednesday.
Snow fall of 3 to 6 inches is possible overnight and winds will gust to 35 mph.
“Travel will be very difficult to impossible,” the service said in its warning.
“The storm has a pretty good moisture plume with it and it is coming off the Pacific,” said Spencer Tangen, weather service meteorologist in Boise. “We haven’t really had many storms like this, this year so it might be kind of shocking to people compared to what we’ve seen.”
He said Vale will be on the line with 3 to 7 inches of snow.
“Vale is going to be kind of a transition point. Points south probably won’t get as much snow and points north will get more,” he said.
A heavy snowfall could impact schools and businesses for Wednesday.
“A lot of roads will be hard to drive on,” Tangen said.
He said the storm is expected to dissipate by Wednesday afternoon.
“There is another system coming in Thursday, but that doesn’t look to be as heavy and it should be a little warmer,” Tangen said. “The one Thursday looks more like rain or rain and snow mix.”