Snow lighter to the north, heavier south

The storm overnight dumped more white on the south end of the county than it did to the north, say meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Medford.

Rogue River, Central Point, Eagle Point and Medford areas near the valley floor have about 3 inches of snow this morning. Ruch and Talent have 4 to 5, and Ashland has about 6 inches on the ground.

If that's unusual, it's doesn't amount to much compared to Howard Prairie, where 21 new inches of snow coat the ground, or Mount Ashland, which received 22 inches overnight.

The Siskiyou pass has had 28 inches of snow since Tuesday night, and Diamond Lake has received 30-34 inches of snow in this storm.

Klamath County has 16 new inches of snow — 8 from a storm yesterday, 8 more overnight.

Forecasters say more snow is due today. They expect 1 to 3 inches on the valley floor during the day. A new but smaller storm is expected to roll in tonight.

Closures

Closed schools, spotty power outages, fallen trees, slippery roads and more snow on the way are the story of the morning throughout the Rogue Valley.

By 8:30 a.m. this morning most area schools were reported closed closed, although Prospect students were headed to classes after a two-hour delay.

Medford's airport also closed this morning, delaying six or seven flights, said manager Bern Case. One flight scheduled to arrive from San Francisco has been canceled. Case said he expected the airport to reopen by 10:30 a.m.

Road managers were requiring chains to pass summits on highways east and south of the valley, including on Interstate 5 and on Highways 62 and 140. I-5 to the north was clear this morning, said Gary Leaming, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

McAndrews Road in Medford was closed between Hillcrest and Tamarack roads.

Electrical power remained out to about 1,000 customers in east Medford and some Ashland customers, mostly in areas near the college and library at 8:30 this morning. Spokesmen for agencies in both areas said they were working to restore power.

A tree blocking Highway 99 near Rogue River was cleared from the road, said Sheriff Mike Winters. He asked residents to call the sheriff's office at 776-7206 if they spot other problems.

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad trains were running without interruption, a company spokesman said.

"Our biggest issues are with trees and boulders being knocked down on the track," said local train master Matt Shaw. "We send track inspectors out ahead of trains after storms, but I haven't heard about anything." He said the trains are equipped with plows.

"It would take seven or eight feet of snow before it became an issue for us," Shaw said.

Another storm

A smaller storm is expected to follow this one.

Emergency crews from across the valley kept busy responding to reports of downed trees and power lines and snow-related vehicle crashes.

Firefighters in District 3, in the north part of the county, said they'd already been on more than 20 calls by shortly after 7 a.m. A spokesman for District 5, at the south end of the county, said crews there were busy all night and that calls were increasing as people began to move around this morning.

Oregon State Police reported troopers were responding to accidents throughout the area, but busy dispatchers declined to release details.

A tree was blocking Highway 99 near Rogue River, but most other main routes in lower-elevation parts of the valley are fairly clear this morning, said Gary Leaming, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

ODOT also reported that passes north of Grants Pass are clear.

All 3,000 homes without power this morning are on the east side of Medford, where crews have determined the outage was due to a problem at the substation. Vegetation on lines also has been an issue, said Monte Mendenhall, a Pacific Power spokesman.

"This is a wet snow and the vegetation we have here isn't used to that kind of snow loading," he said.

Pacific Power has no estimate of when power will be restored, said Mendenhall.

The Mount Ashland ski area was without power this morning. A message posted on the area's Web site said managers hoped to be able to open for skiing later today.

KTVL Channel 10, which has a transmitter on Mount Ashland, was off the air this morning but available via cable service. KDOV radio station also was off the air this morning but available via streaming audio.