By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
The persistent weak upper level trough that has pestered us the past week has finally started drifting east, moving into Idaho, but will give us one more night of marine clouds with the northwesterly winds decreasing tonight, the low near 52.
However, we now watch another low pressure area dropping southeastward into the Gulf of Alaska. This will help to build a ridge of high pressure over our area starting tomorrow which will bring us mostly sunny skies, winds westerly 8-12, the highs warming to near 69. We see partly cloudy skies tomorrow night, with light northerly winds, lows near 52.
By Friday, the ridge axis shifts eastward and the onshore flow increases, pushing the marine clouds up to the coast, but we should still enjoy a mostly sunny day with the winds becoming more northerly 8-12 gusting to 18, the high near 67, look for mostly clear skies Friday night, lows near 48.
We then watch the upper level low pressure area from above, tracking southeastward over the weekend, then moving into British Columbia, north of Vancouver Island, which will increase the westerly flow over our area so we can expect sunny skies over the weekend with breezy afternoon and evening northwesterly winds 10-15 gusting to 25, the high near 69, lows near 49.
It looks like Monday, the 3rd of July, and Tuesday the 4th of July will be the warmer days. We see sunny skies with highs around 72, clear nights, lows near 52. It is looking more likely that the valley is looking at temperatures climbing into the upper 80s by Sunday, then the low to mid 90s for the start of next week.
We think things will moderate after the 4th.
Obviously, all this dry weather of late, combining with the elevated temperatures across the 4th of July period, will bring more risks to all the celebrations. There are the heat risks that can bring on medical issues for people enjoying the outdoors, including drowning risks to those individuals enjoying the water in lakes, rivers, and the ocean. Then the fireworks elevate the made-made fire concerns across the region, including in the Coast Range. We have also seen, in the past, embers from non-extinguished beach fires being blown in by the afternoon winds and causing the dry vegetation to ignite near or at the beach homes causing damage. The bottom line, enjoy the holiday weekend, but do so safely.