By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Friday, February 17, 2023
Looking at the satellite picture shows the cutoff low pressure area nearing southern California, a weak system that brought some light rain to the area, and a high pressure ridge in the Pacific that is holding a strong trough away, for now anyway.
So, the front drops southeastward tonight leaving us with cloudy skies, calm winds, and the low near 35.
Another weak front drops thru bringing some more rain starting later tomorrow morning lasting thru the afternoon, winds becoming westerly 5-10, highs near 48, then dry again tomorrow night with mostly cloudy skies, light westerly winds, lows near 38.
Sunday also looks dry to start, so mostly cloudy daytime skies, winds westerly 4-8, highs near 50, then we start to see more clouds, then a slight chance of rain late, lows near 41.
Monday starts the change with a disturbance dropping thru the area so for the holiday (Washington’s Birthday/Presidents Day) we will see cloudy and rainy conditions, the high near 50, becoming breezy Monday night, lows near 37.
By Tuesday we see a stronger, colder trough of low pressure pushing in heavier rain and strong winds that also lower the temperatures and snow levels. So, rainy and windy Tuesday with highs near 45, and the snow level, that started out at around 2000’, drops to around 1400’ that afternoon which would start to impact travel over the Coast Range passes. The rain continues Tuesday night, still windy, the lows drop to around 30. This means the snow level will continue to fall to around 800’ Tuesday night then low level snow is possible in the early morning hours as the temperatures nears then falls below freezing. Icing also becomes a concern.
Wednesday looks breezy and showery with lower level snow to start, still breezy, then as the temperatures rise, the snow level lifts to around 400’, the high only near 41. By Wednesday night, even colder air pushes in and we likely see snow to the beaches as the lows are expected to hit 21.
And Thursday we still have a chance of snow, still breezy, and the high only climbs to near 37.