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By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
This morning the only area that continues to have spotty ice in our area is over the top of the passes on Hwy 6. To see any significant icing you must travel through eastern Portland and into the gorge and Hood River area. In our area the overnight low at the Tillamook Airport was 43 and Tripcheck reported the temperature across the summit early this morning was down around 33 with patches of ice.
With a ridge of high pressure off to the east and a trough of low pressure to the west, we remain in a southwesterly flow that continues to push warmer rain up through the area in the persistent southwesterly flow that will likely give us somewhere between 1” to 1 ½” of rain today and tonight as another front moves across. So, obviously we will remain cloudy and rainy today with the surface winds becoming easterly 10-15 gusting to 20 then increasing to 15-20 gusting to 30 later this afternoon, the high near 50. The next system moves up towards the area tonight bringing more rain and winds with the winds easterly 20-25 gusting to 30.
The system pushes through tomorrow so continued rainy and windy with the east winds 15-20 gusting to 30, and the high near 51. More rain is likely Friday night, still the breezy easterly winds 14-18 gusting to 30, the low near 40.
We see little change in the pattern over the weekend so look for a continued southwesterly flow over the region that pushes more moisture up over our area with an occasional area of disturbed weather that enhances and increases the rain off and on. One such area will be a weakening low pressure area that developes west of northern California Friday, then moves northeastward in the flow and travels up just off the coast of Oregon Saturday into Sunday on its way to Vancouver Island. This will bring more warm rain across the area this weekend with highs in the low 50s, lows around the low 40s.
It looks like the southwesterly flow will continue to persist next week, at least through midweek, so expect little change in the forecast Monday on through Wednesday, with continued cloudy, rainy, and breezy conditions with highs around 53, lows around 47.
I did take a quick look at the rivers and while they all do see increasing flow rates, none are forecasted to get to a level of concern with all cresting well below Action Stage over the weekend.
