Anyone optimistic about spring coming early must have been sorely disappointed this past week, as a winter storm that was expected to only impact Oregon’s higher elevations, instead hit Central Oregon harder than expected.

When the National Weather Service issued a winter weather warning Tuesday, it predicted precipitation would be a mix of rain and snow with high chances of freezing rain but little accumulation. Instead, Bend has seen a week of consistent snowfall, and is under an updated winter weather advisory until 10 a.m. Sunday.

“We are still in February. Getting more snow in February is not uncommon,” said meteorologist Robert Brooks, from the National Weather Service in Pendleton. “But that warm front hasn’t really added that warm tongue out there for freezing rain as of yet, so it’s all falling as snow.”

Brooks said on Saturday that people in Bend won’t see blue skies until Wednesday, and that more precipitation will fall throughout the next couple days. What kind of precipitation, of course, depends on the interaction between the system moving in and the warm front sitting over Oregon, he said.

All this snow has been a boon for tourists heading to Mt. Bachelor for Presidents Day weekend. On Friday, the ski area reported 90 inches of snow pack at the base, the highest recorded snow depth this season.

“February at Mt. Bachelor has brought incredible conditions across the mountain, top-to-bottom summit days and the best conditions of the season the last few weeks. Our snowpack is in great shape with a base depth of 90 inches and total season snowfall at 231 inches and counting,” said Mt. Bachelor spokesperson Lauren Burke.

Although road conditions aren’t nearly as slick as they were during the freezing rain in Janurary that shut down Redmond Airport, caused several fatal crashes and closed Bend-La Pine schools, there has been enough snow for the city and ODOT to deploy plows.

This year, the city implemented a real-time map for residents to check which roads have been serviced and how long ago they were plowed. The map is viewable on the city’s winter operations webpage.

The wintery conditions have caused a slight uptick in emergency calls to the Bend Fire Department said Cindy Kettering, a deputy fire marshal.

“We’ve had no major incidents, but the usual assortment of fender benders, slips and falls … those types of things,” Kettering said. “We ask people to use caution out there in the slippery conditions.”