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By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
We saw few, if any, showers today as a high pressure ridge builds in, bringing fair and mild conditions today and tomorrow. So, after a partly sunny day we can expect partly cloudy skies tonight with easterly winds 5-10 that diminish overnight, the down near 41.
As I mentioned, tomorrow looks fair and mild with sunny skies, the calm winds becoming westerly 5-10, highs climbing up to near 60, then with partly cloudy skies and light winds, the temperature drops to near 38 degrees. There is a chance of some patchy fog later that night.
By Saturday a low pressure area that was sitting well offshore gets cutoff from the jet stream and pushed to the south as a stronger northwesterly flow sets up over our area. We do enjoy another mostly sunny day with northwesterly winds 4-8, the high near 55. Saturday night though, we see increasing clouds, then in the early morning hours the chance of rain starts to move back in ahead of a late season strong cold front, we still have some light winds overnight, the low near 43.
The chance of rain increases Sunday morning with rain likely by lunchtime, the winds becoming southwesterly 15-20 gusting to 25, the high only near 51. Cloudy, rainy, and breezy Sunday night, the snow level drops to near 1500’ after midnight which means the summit could be seeing snow, our low temperature drops to near 37.
Monday is when things start to get a little more complicated. We continue to see the rain with lowering temperatures and snow levels, which fall to near 1000’ by Monday afternoon, our high temperature tops off at 45 degrees, but with the breezy winds, the temperature outside will feel like the 30s. Monday night the rain continues but in the early morning hours, the temperatures drop to near 35 degrees which puts the snow level down around 500-900’, the forecasted low temperature is 35 degrees. I say forecasted as it may change between now and then, and being that close to freezing, low level snow is possible, especially if the rain pulls even colder air down to the surface. The bottom line, it looks like, for right now anyway, the higher roads and highways in the county could be impacted by the snow, especially up across Hwy 6 where the top could be seeing heavy snow overnight.
Tuesday starts out with the rain and possible low level snow until the sun comes up and starts to warm things, turning it to all rain, the snow level climbing to near 1100’ in the morning then continuing to climb in the afternoon to around 1700’. We still see the breezy winds with the high up near 49.
Wednesday, things continue to moderate though we are still rainy and breezy, the snow level climbs to up past 2500’, the afternoon high up near 50.