By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Monday, January 30, 2023
The strong high pressure ridge just off to the west gave us another bright, sunny, and very dry day with high temperatures in the mid 40s. We did have some high clouds dropping down across the top of the ridge associated with a weak disturbance that will keep us mostly cloudy tonight. Even with the calm winds, the cloud cover will keep the temperatures tonight from getting so cold, only dropping down to around 30.
We see the clouds still tomorrow, still with the light winds, the high up near 47. With a disturbance passing to our north tomorrow night, we could see some patchy drizzle late. Look for some light easterly winds after midnight, the lows near 34, and the snow level around 1500’.
Cloudy skies Wednesday, the chance of patchy drizzle still for the morning hours, winds becoming easterly 4-8, the high climbs to near 52, and the snow level lifts to near 2000’. Mostly cloudy skies for Wednesday night, the snow level lifts to near 3000’, as does the minimum temperature which only drops to near 38 that night.
By Thursday, the ridge weakens and drifts east which opens us up for some fronts to bring back the rain with a slight chance beginning Thursday morning. So, Thursday we can expect some cloudy skies, an increasing chance of mainly light rain in the afternoon with rain likely by Thursday night, also becoming breezy, highs near 51, lows near 42.
The front finally pushes thru around lunchtime on Friday, and we transition from rain to rainshowers in the afternoon. Still breezy, highs near 51, more scattered showers that night that become more widely scattered but then the next system pushes in rain after midnight, lows near 42.
We are getting a few mixed signals from the models about the weekend which looks cloudy and wet. The issue is some models are now forming a low pressure area on the approaching front and that could change the amount of rain and winds we get from the system, which also is driven by how close to the coast it moves. For now, we can say it will be cloudy and rainy, and a little breezy. Stay tuned though as how wet and windy things get is a little … sorry . . . up in the air!
