By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Another day and here comes another front. The morning satellite picture shows a large trough sitting off the coast with imbedded low pressure centers riding in the flow, bringing us periods of rain and breezy winds. I saw easterly winds this morning of 15-20 gusting to around 30 at the airport with similar winds down at the beaches. These low pressure areas are expected to drift northward today towards British Columbia, bringing periods of rain through early this evening when the rain and winds ease. There is also a slight chance that thunderstorms could pop up offshore near the beaches. Again, the rain and winds ease tonight, the easterly winds 8-12, lows near 47.
It looks like we will see some more light rain tomorrow with the winds now southerly 5-10, the high near 54, the light rain transitions to scattered showers later tomorrow evening, but these to start to slowly diminish, becoming widely scattered overnight, light southerly winds, lows near 39.
High pressure starts to build in New Year’s Eve which puts an end to any remaining showers Sunday morning, then we see some partly sunny skies with light easterly winds still, highs near 54. With some breaks in the clouds Sunday night, the low dips to near 38.
The models start to get mixed New Year’s Day, but we are going with a mostly dry day under partly sunny skies again, you could still see a rogue light shower by the afternoon, the high near 54. That night the models are sending increasingly mixed signals with some saying the ridge will continue to influence our weather while several other models show a trough of low pressure will move close enough to bring back some rain. Given the recent pattern history, we are opting for the chance of rain returning Monday night, lows near 40.
Given all this, we think the rain will return Tuesday with a chance of rain still on Wednesday and Thursday as well, daytime highs near 52, nighttime lows near 39.
LISTEN HERE to Gordon’s regional forecast: