Greg Johannsen, of Bend, takes advantage of the fresh snow to cross-country ski around Drake Park.

La Pine resident Wes Elliott woke up Friday expecting to see knee-deep snow on the ground. Instead, he saw a dusting. Weather forecasts showed the possibility of 10 to 20 inches of snow across Central Oregon by Friday, but that never materialized. Another storm is expected Friday night, but the region was mostly spared for now.

Elliott, who owns La Pine Tax Service, was relieved he didn’t have to spend the day clearing snow from his own driveway and the parking lot of his business.

“I was dreading having to plow and snow blow all day,” Elliott said Friday.

“So that snow going away was a nice surprise this morning.”

While La Pine and Sunriver saw about 2 inches of snow Friday, Bend had 3 to 4 inches, according to Marilyn Lohmann, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

“Overall, it hasn’t been quite as much as we expected,” Lohmann said.

But the weather service still extended a winter storm warning until 4 p.m. Saturday because a winter storm is expected to arrive Friday night and bring 3 to 8 inches of snow to the High Desert. More snow is expected again Sunday night.

Temperatures were freezing early Friday morning when the thermostat dropped to 12 degrees. The cold weather is expected to continue Friday and Saturday nights with lows of 15 degrees, the weather service predicted.

“We are still looking at several more rounds,” Lohmann said. “We will see snow increase again mainly tonight as it comes back into the area.”

Like Elliott, weather service forecasters were surprised to see so little snow Friday in La Pine.

Lohmann, who considers La Pine the snow capital of Oregon, said the weather pattern was warmer than expected and didn’t produce as much snow.

“It took a little bit longer for the rain to change over to snow,” Lohmann said.

Before it started to snow, La Pine and Sunriver had freezing rain that made the roads slick.

“That always makes it more challenging when you have that freezing rain under the snow,” said Kacey Davey, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Davey said there were some accidents reported Thursday night as the freezing rain and snow started to fall in Central Oregon, including a wreck that closed U.S. Highway 97 south of Sunriver for about a half an hour.

“We saw some accidents when the snow hit and people started commuting last night,” Davey said. “But our accidents slowed down throughout the night.”

With more winter storms in the forecast, ODOT crews are busy keeping the state highways clear.

“Our crews are out there working around the clock,” Davey said. “They are on their snow plow routes, and we are using all of our tools to keep the roads open and safe.”

In Bend, city officials are monitoring the forecast and will have snow plow contractors on standby if snow conditions worsen.

David Abbas, the transportation and mobility director of the city, said he was happy with how plowing had gone so far, and said most main roads in the city are in good shape.

“The phones are pretty quiet … and that’s a pretty good thing because it means we are not getting a lot of calls for service, instead of having the phone ringing off the hook,” Abbas said Friday morning.

Abbas said crews would be out clearing off areas Friday, such as sidewalks near roundabouts and bridges.

“We are really trying to provide a higher level of service for all users, not just vehicles on roadways,” he said.