By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Some clear skies and breezy northeasterly winds this morning with a strong, blocking high pressure ridge firmly in place over the area. This high will continue to give us fair, dry, and mild conditions through the weekend and into the start of next week, but the pattern starts to shift Tuesday night with a trough of low pressure dropping down from the northwest. The question is, how much of this system will survive as it pushes against the strong ridge?
I think I should mention that offshore conditions are such that there is a risk of sneaker waves today through later tomorrow evening. As I always caution, sneaker waves are always a potential hazard along the Pacific Coast, but this threat is sometimes enhanced by offshore conditions. Beachgoers should always stay alert for these unexpected waves, but especially over the next couple of days.
So, tonight we will see clear skies again with easterly winds 8-12, the low only dropping to near 48, then tomorrow we see the warmest temperatures for this event as the ridge axis shifts over our area, and with sunny skies, the high climbs up to near 71, still with the easterly winds though, 8-12. The ridge slowly shifts east of our area tomorrow night and weakens some, but we maintain the clear skies, the winds becoming more southerly before diminishing overnight, the low near 46.
Sunday and Monday we still see the sunny skies each day, the high up near 66, and still the mostly clear nights, lows near 45.
By Tuesday we see the high dropping southeastward and flattening as that low pressure trough pushes down from the northwest. This brings some clouds and cooler temperatures with the high only near 61, more clouds likely Tuesday night along with a slight chance of rain starting around midnight, lows near 44.
After that, the ridge weakens some more as it also shifts further east in response to the low pressure trough nearing the coast with a possible low pressure area to the north, approaching British Columbia. This would bring partly sunny to mostly cloudy skies with a chance of rain on Wednesday and Thursday with highs in the mid 50s and lows in the low 40s.
And in case you are wondering if we are done with the freezing temperatures, a quick search revealed a low temperature of 21 degrees on March 19th, 1965, and another low of 23 degrees on March 19th again, in 1955, so the answers is…maybe…after March 19th!