by Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
It’s like Ground Hog Day, the weather keeps repeating itself. The onshore flow pushes in the marine clouds at night that burn back to or near the coast each afternoon. This pattern is thanks to the persistent ridge of high pressure heating up the Midwest, while a low pressure area in the Gulf of Alaska slowly drifts southeastward toward coastal British Columbia. It continues the onshore flow here that helps repeat the forecast each day, cloudy nights with partly to mostly sunny afternoons, depending on how much of the marine clouds burn off. This pattern will repeat itself today on through the weekend, but we do see a change coming for the start of next week. So, for tonight, we see the clouds return with the westerly winds easing, patchy early morning fog possible, lows near 52.
The clouds burn back some tomorrow, winds becoming westerly 8-12 gusting to 20, highs near 70, then the clouds move back in tomorrow night, the winds ease making the patchy fog possible late, lows near 54.
Sunday looks mostly sunny after the clouds and fog burn back later in the morning, winds becoming northwesterly 8-12 in the afternoon, highs near 69, in rolls the marine clouds again Sunday night, the winds die off, lows near 54.
By Monday, we see the low pressure area, that was in the Gulf of Alaska, has drifted near British Columbia and that pulls or rotates an associated trough in towards our area, giving us a slight chance of showers starting Monday afternoon with a little better chance Monday night, highs near 67, lows near 55. We could also see some breezy winds again overnight associated with the trough moving across.
We see partly sunny skies Tuesday, the high near 68, then mostly sunny skies return for Wednesday and Thursday, the high near 69, partly cloudy nights, lows near 53.
The extended models show the fair, dry and mild conditions likely continue the rest of next week.
Finally, I caution everyone, the fire dangers are still elevated across the state, with all the dry material and weather, it doesn’t take much to start a wildfire. While the coast enjoys cooler temperatures with a higher relative humidity usually, you also see the higher afternoon winds. There are currently 25 fires in Oregon with the largest being the Flat Fire in southwestern Oregon that has currently burned over 15,000 acres. Check with the local Fire District on any restrictions, including at the beaches, before you start any fires!