Josh Gregory, of Tualatin, helps Johanna Johnson, of Sisters, put chains on her tires at a chain-up area along U.S. Highway 20 west of Sisters on Wednesday.

After driving with chains on his tires for 100 miles to make it to Central Oregon on Sunday, Josh Gregory, of Tualatin, was relieved Wednesday to only have to chain up for a 20-mile stretch of Santiam Pass.

“… Today, it wasn’t too bad,” he said Wednesday afternoon after completing the return trip from Sunriver to Tualatin. Gregory, 30, and his family spent Christmas in Central Oregon. On their trip here they used chains from just east of Detroit Lake to Sunriver.

While snow made for a scenic holiday in and around Bend, it also made for messy highways. The forecast is offering a short break from snowfall, but chilly temperatures could keep the roads slick, said Peter Murphy, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation in Bend.

“So, the icy conditions are not leaving us for the foreseeable future,” he said.

High temperatures are not expected to get warmer than 37 degrees during the next week, according to the National Weather Service. Lows should be in the teens until Monday. The high temperature today in Bend should be near freezing, 32 degrees. Although there is a chance of snow before 10 a.m., today should be partly sunny. Friday should be mostly cloudy with a high around 34 and a low near 17.

More snow could fall in Bend late Friday and early Saturday, said Joe Solomon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

“It doesn’t look like a lot though,” he said.

About an inch of snow could fall on Bend, Solomon said, while 1 to 3 inches could fall in Sunriver and La Pine. Passes through the Cascades, such as Santiam Pass, may receive less than 6 inches of new snow.

An automated snow measurement site at Santiam Junction — where U.S. Highway 20/State Highway 126 and State Highway 22 meet about 25 miles west of Sisters — shows there is nearly 4 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. The bulk of the snowfall has come since Dec. 15, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The federal agency maintains the snow-measurement site.

About 4 inches of snow fell Sunday, the day Gregory made his trek over Santiam Pass, according to the data.

A cold weather system is expected to move into the state from Canada on Sunday, but Solomon said the brunt of the system will likely miss Central Oregon.

“I don’t see any major snowstorms or anything like that in the near future,” he said.