By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
After an exciting weather week, we saw a cooler and drier weekend with the afternoon highs in the low to mid 60s, and the overnight lows in the low 40s. Today, Monday September 28th, we had a weak ridge of high pressure that gave us another mostly sunny, dry, and cool day. Tonight, we see increasing clouds ahead of a trough of low pressure and an associated weak front that brings a threat of rain starting in the early morning hours tomorrow. With light winds tonight, and the increasing cloudiness, the low only drops to around 50.
The clouds and rain chances continue to increase tomorrow, Tuesday September 29th with rain likely in the afternoon as the front approaches. The winds tomorrow will be southerly 5-10, the afternoon high temperature around 63. The rain continues tomorrow night with the front crossing a little before midnight, then we see mostly cloudy skies and decreasing winds after midnight, the lows again near 50. As far as how much rain we can expect, not much really, maybe 15 hundreds of an inch.
It looks like another weak ridge will cause the dry, fair and somewhat mild conditions to return Wednesday, with mostly sunny skies returning after some possible patchy early morning fog, the winds becoming northerly 4-8, and the afternoon high temperature near 68.
Thursday looks mostly sunny and mild with the afternoon high up around 70, then we see some clouds moving in that night as it appears we will see a weak trough approaching, the overnight low near 51.
That disturbance likely passes far enough to the north Friday to only give us some clouds through Friday morning, then we see the sun returning in the afternoon, highs near 67, a partly cloudy night expected with the lows near 50.
The long range models say we can expect a nice weekend, with mostly sunny and dry daytime skies, the highs near 70, then some partly cloudy nights, the lows near 51.
For the astronomists out there, it looks like you are in for a treat towards the end of this week. Saturn will be closer and will be opposite the sun in our skies, making Saturn and its rings appear brighter and visible, especially with good binoculars, or best with a telescope. If you look tomorrow night, Saturn will still be visible, just not as bright as it will appear on Sunday, and you may see four of its moons also.
And that’s it for this week folks, stay safe and I’ll be back next Monday.
