By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
A case of dueling low pressure areas today. There is the one that moved across to the north yesterday that continues to push off to the east in Canada, then there is another one dropping down from the Gulf of Alaska off the coast, and another weak low down off the coast of California. This all put us under a warmer southwesterly flow that will cause a warming of our afternoon temperatures for the next couple of days. We also see some smoke in the upper atmosphere that has been pushed over the area by these systems.
The low that is dropping southward along the coast today from the northwest has caused the California low to eject off to the northeast and the combination will cause us to have a chance of showers tonight starting around midnight and the instability could trigger a thunderstorm later in the early morning hours. The westerly winds will die off tonight, the low near 56.
The thunderstorm threat diminishes tomorrow morning, but we continue to see a slight chance of showers until around noon tomorrow, then we enjoy mostly sunny afternoon skies. The winds tomorrow becoming westerly 5-10, the high up near 75. Tomorrow night looks mostly clear with calm winds, the low near 53.
The low pressure area continues to be parked off the coast, west of Oregon Saturday and Sunday, and we continue to see mostly sunny skies with daytime highs a little cooler at 71. At night we have mostly cloudy skies, the lows near 53. By Sunday night though, the low starts to drift east or northeastward and will give us a chance of showers starting later Sunday night into early Monday morning, the low near 54.
Next week, the low continues to move east and by midweek is moving ashore in extreme northern Oregon or southern Washington, so we can expect a chance of showers with partly sunny to mostly cloudy days and mostly cloudy nights, the highs around 68, lows near 53, through Wednesday, the low will likely be east of the area by next Thursday.