By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Well Tillamook, I know I’m sounding like a stuck record but we are still seeing a high pressure ridge off to the east over the Rockies as we watch a low pressure area meandering up off the Canadian coast. It is rotating a low pressure trough towards the Pacific Northwest that may give us a drop or two tomorrow on Tuesday, but that chance is only slight. So tonight we will see some patchy fog late with light winds, the low tonight near 57.
Tomorrow looks mostly cloudy with a slight chance of some light rain over the noon hours with a weak front moving across, with southwesterly winds 4-8, the high temperature tomorrow near 67. Some clouds linger tomorrow night, the winds diminish, lows near 53.
Wednesday starts out cloudy with that patchy morning fog but the clouds burn back, leaving mostly sunny skies for the afternoon, the winds becoming northwesterly 5-10, Wednesday’s high near 68. Back comes the typical patchy fog under mostly clear skies, the low drops to near 50.
Thursday, we see mostly sunny skies as the ridge building back in, the high near 68, areas of fog return Thursday night, the low near 50.
Sunny skies are expected for the end of the week, that afternoon high climbs to near 70 on Friday, but then we see increasing cloudiness Friday night as another trough moves towards the area, the overnight lows near 54.
There appears to be a slight chance of rain Saturday under partly sunny skies, the high near 68, then the partly cloudy skies return for Saturday night, the lows near 54.
Conditions continue to improve Sunday with sunny skies expected by the afternoon, the high near 67, lows near 52.
The good news, at least for us anyway, is that the winds continue to be onshore at the surface and southwesterly aloft so the wildfire smoke will primarily be an issue for the area east of the Cascades. In fact, there is an Air Quality Alert for areas starting around Detroit Lake and the Santiam Pass eastward. Today’s report shows 88 fires currently with over one million acres burned. Indeed, it is a bad year for wildfire in Oregon and elsewhere.
