The hand-wringing begins in earnest and, as we’ve promised, we are your winter weather headquarters. Here’s the assortment of Friday-morning stories about the Arctic blast that’s staring Oregon and Washington in the face, starting today and continuing through Monday or Tuesday, maybe longer. What are you doing to get ready?

• The Oregonian (Portland): National Weather Service issues warning; forecaster says it will be “a couple, three rotten days”
• The Oregonian: Story complete with multicolored maps showing types of warnings for each area and temperatures expected in each area
• OregonLive: Kym Pokorny blogs about plant protection measures for home gardeners
• Seattle Times: “Some of the coldest temperatures since 1990“
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Major winter blast“

Feel free to talk about what you’re seeing – and doing – in the comments.