By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Friday, November 18, 2022
The high pressure ridge continues to cause a strong pressure gradient resulting in the breezy east winds over the area. These winds also pull in some cooler temperatures, especially at night which, when combined with the winds, equals a very cold windchill temperature.
With mostly clear skies tonight, and the east winds 14-18 gusting to near 30, the low drops to near 32 which will cause a windchill temperature of around 20.
Tomorrow the ridge starts to weaken which eases the gradient and thus we see the east winds also starting to ease. Still with the sunny skies, the east winds only 5-10, tomorrow high temperature around 52. We see increasing clouds tomorrow night, east winds 4-8, lows near 34.
Sunday the weakening ridge moves east, and the flow becomes more zonal as a front also slowly approaches the coast. So, Sunday looks mostly cloudy with the light southerly winds, the high near 53, then we see a slight chance of rain starting Sunday evening. By Sunday night the clouds further increase, along with that chance of rain, lows near 40.
Cloudy with a chance of rain Monday with rain likely by Monday night continuing thru Tuesday, highs near 54, lows near 42. After that it looks like we keep a chance of rain for pretty much the rest of the week though some of the models suggest another ridge around the Wednesday/Thursday timeframe. The good news is that, for now, it appears the rains will not be heavy enough to cause any flooding concern and the snow level will be above the Coast Range elevations so travel for turkey day to or from the Tillamook coast shouldn’t be an issue, accept for the amount.
From the this date in history… “it could be worse” weather history files of Mc. Gordon McCraw:
If this prolonged cold snap has you down, think about Helena, MT. On this date in 1955 it experienced 138 consecutive hours of subzero temperatures, including a reading of 29 below zero, which surpassed by seven degrees their previous record for the month of November. Missoula MT broke their November record by 12 degrees with a reading of 23 below zero, and Salt Lake City UT smashed their previous November record of zero with a reading of 14 below. Heavy snow in the Great Basin closed Donner Pass CA, and total crop damage from the cold wave amounted to eleven million dollars. (David Ludlum)
In December 1981 I started going to Forecasting School in central Illinois, spending Christmas in the Air Force Lodge in Rantoul. A cold snap developed, and they set a record, the greatest number of consecutive days where the temperature never went above zero. In addition to the cold temperatures, they also had some strong winds that pushed the nightly windchill temperatures down to the minus 40 degree range. It was c-o-l-d!