By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
The temperatures in the valley managed to hit the triple digits again yesterday, breaking some more records, Eugene and Troutdale hit 105, Salem 104, then Portland and Hillsboro made it to 103, with Vancouver to 102. They didn’t cool much at night either with many of the same locations setting records for the warmest low temperatures, some of them dating back to the 1800s.
Today, the increased onshore flow combining with some mid and high clouds streaming up from the southeast meant we enjoyed temperatures in the low 70s today. Even the valley started to see temperatures dropping by around 10 degrees. Still warm there, but at least not triple digits again.
Tonight, the marine clouds thicken and the patchy fog returns, later, after the winds die down, the low temperatures around 54.
Friday we are looking at a low pressure trough dropping southeastward from the Gulf of Alaska as an upper level cut-off low pressure area continues to spin off the California Coast. The combination will increase the onshore flow and weaken the high pressure ridge that has given us this record heat period, and push it eastward some. The result locally is we start out cloudy with patchy fog Friday, that slowly burns back leaving sunny skies, the winds becoming northwesterly 14-18 gusting to 30, the high only up near 68. Friday night we are likely to stay partly cloudy but with a chance of patchy fog late, after the winds ease, lows near 50. This is good news for the valley as well as their high temperatures will be in the low 80s finally, their lows down around 60.
The weekend is looking pleasant with mostly sunny skies Saturday, still a little breezy with winds becoming northwesterly 8-12 gusting to 20, the high near 72, then Sunday sunny and 76, the lows around 52.
After the weekend, the forecast picture starts to get muddy thanks to the Tropical Storm currently south of Baja California, Mexico. The obvious question is, where will that moisture go? Will it go northeastward across Southern California into the Great Basin area, or make it up east of the Cascades, or something else?
It appears, for us, it will mean continuing fair, dry, and mild conditions thru the middle of next week. The forecast is for partly to mostly sunny skies, maybe some patchy fog off and on, highs in the low 70s, and lows in the low 50s.
The smoke forecast is looking better for the area with it appearing to clear from the northwest as most of it gets pushed southeastward. There is, however, still an Air Quality Advisory in effect until Friday for parts of the valley.