By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
The atmospheric river and front pushed through early this morning leaving some patchy light rain. It was windy though with winds at the airport gusting to 35 and the winds at the beaches gusting into the 40s with peak gusts near 56 in Pacific City. The good news is it appears the heavier rain ended up moving into Washington. So tonight, we are just looking at scattered, mainly light, showers with the winds decreasing and becoming light and variable, the low drops to near 47.
Tomorrow looks cloudy, but we have another faster moving atmospheric river approaching so we have an increasing chance of rain starting tomorrow afternoon with light easterly winds, the high near 63. The rain and winds will increase tomorrow night, winds becoming southerly 8-12 gusting to 20, lows near 53. It appears we will see another 1” to 2” of rain from this system though there may be some Coast Range areas that see 2-4”.
The rain continues into Saturday morning then transitions to showers by the afternoon but becoming windy with southerly winds 18-24 gusting to 35, highs near 62. We can expect more showers Saturday night, with a chance of thunderstorms, still the breezy winds that will be easing and becoming southerly 8-12 by around midnight, lows near 49.
On Sunday a cooler upper level trough of low pressure moves in and brings us more rain with breezy conditions, along with a chance of thunderstorms, and this weather persists into Monday including Monday night, highs near 57, lows near 47.
Then cooler, showery weather continues Tuesday and Wednesday with daytime highs around 56, nighttime lows around 45.
Because these atmospheric river events are faster moving with breaks in the rain between the systems, and the hose on this first system was pointed more to our north, river levels do increase but not to a level causing any flooding concerns. The only coastal river that even appears to reach Action Stage is the usual, Grays River in Washington.