Winter weather has arrived in Central Oregon, just in time for some of the busiest travel days of the year.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has determined that today, the Friday following Thanksgiving, is historically the most congested day of the year on Oregon highways.

Peter Murphy, regional spokesman for ODOT, said the overall traffic volume in Central Oregon has risen by 20 percent in the last few years, with only minor expansions of the region’s road system. Add holiday travel to that higher level of traffic, and drivers will often experience traffic slowing to a near-crawl, he said.

Using data from cellphones and GPS devices, ODOT determined that on the Friday after Thanksgiving last year, travel time through Sisters jumped to more than 18 minutes. On a typical day, that trip takes just six minutes, Murphy said.

Murphy said ODOT responded to a number of cars sliding off the road Wednesday morning between Bend and Redmond and near La Pine, the first weather-related traffic mishaps of the season. With forecasts through the weekend predicting temperatures at, or slightly above freezing, and a chance of snow in the Bend-Redmond area, potentially challenging conditions will continue for drivers, Murphy said.

“I’m confident we’re going to have snowfall. We certainly will have winter driving conditions that motorists are going to have to deal with,” he said.

Winter weather on top of holiday traffic can complicate the process of plowing, sanding and applying chemical de-icing agents to the highways at higher elevations, Murphy said. Plows and other ODOT maintenance vehicles don’t travel faster than around 35 mph, sometimes creating backups and prompting some drivers to take chances to get around them, Murphy said.

Although the snow just arrived, interest in driving on it started earlier this month.

Joe Wheeler, manager of the Les Schwab Tire Center on Bend’s south side, said winter tires started selling about two weeks ago. Wheeler said there will likely be another surge of customers seeking winter tires when snow begins falling in Bend, but it’s hard to predict exactly when the crush will come.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com