By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
LISTEN HERE:
Man, you had an active night there Tillamook. I saw winds gusting to 51 in Pacific City and I found a gust to 56 at Tillamook Airport. The others were in the range of upper 30s to mid 40s. As far as rain, you had plenty of that also, Lees Camp reported 3.7” in the last 24 hours, Tillamook 3.75”, Mt Hebo 3.07” and Oceanside 2.79. This did push the rivers up, the Wilson and Nehalem Rivers made it into Actions Stage. Fortunately, all the rivers have crested and are on their way down. I also saw that all the rain and winds did cause some landslides and power outages in the county. The temperatures were steady overnight then right after the front went through at around 10:00pm, the temperature just dropped like a rock and the winds and rain eased as we started transitioning to scattered showers. The ODOT cameras are showing some snow as low as Lees Camp on Hwy 6 and the Hwy 26 cameras are showing snow as well this morning with the temperatures there currently near or just above freezing. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the North Oregon Coast Range that is now in effect through 6am tomorrow for areas above 1500’ where they could get an additional 2-6” of snow with 6-12” possible above 2500’.
Now that the front is through, unstable colder air is pushing in and we see showers with possible hail, and maybe even a thunderstorm or two this evening and tonight, the winds becoming southerly 10-15 gusting to 25 overnight, the low drops to near 35. This means that the snow level, which hovered near 1500’ today, will drop to near 1000’ with lower snow, or a rain/snow mix possible during the heavier showers. For those areas, little or no accumulation is expected, again, for the areas above 1000’, 2-4” is expected overnight.
The post-frontal shower activity continues tomorrow, still with that threat of a thunderstorm of a thunderstorm or two, winds southwesterly 10-15 gusting to 20, the high now only near 44. The shower chance remains tomorrow night, the winds still southerly 10-15 gusting to 20, the low falls to near 34, the snow level down near 800’ with that threat of lower snow with any heavier showers. As my friends at the Weather Service said, make sure you are prepared for winter weather driving conditions if you are headed over the passes today or tomorrow, on into the start of next week, especially in the evening through the morning hours.
So, Saturday and Sunday we can expect another day of showers with a rain/snow mix possible for the morning hours, the snow level each morning likely 500-700’ to start but climbing in the afternoon to near 1000’ with the afternoon high temperature near 45 degrees. Sunday night a trough of low pressure, that had been sitting offshore, is expected to start drifting east into the area, which in turns pushes in some disturbances that enhance the shower activity and brings back a chance of thunderstorms, the overnight low near 33, and the snow level down near 1000’.
The models are a little mixed for next week but given our recent activity, we go with mostly cloudy skies with a chance of showers each day, highs climbing into the upper 40s by midweek, the low in the mid to upper 30s.
Welcome to March!
