By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
We saw a couple of light showers this morning in the northwesterly flow, but with the ridge to the west moving in and building, conditions improve this afternoon. Tonight, we see partly cloudy skies and with radiational cooling and light winds, the low drops to near 35 and as a result we see some patch early morning frost.
The frost evaporates after sunup, and with mostly sunny skies, and east winds 4-8, the high climbs to near 61. With the strong ridge now influencing the weather over the area, tomorrow night looks mostly clear with easterly winds 5-10, the low only drops to near 43.
After tomorrow, the strong high pressure ridge dominates the weather into the weekend, bringing sunny skies Friday with a high near 69, then the high temperature peaks around 70 on Saturday. We continue to see the sunny skies Sunday, but with the ridge axis shifting eastward, the high only climbs to near 66 on Sunday then down to near 62 on Monday, low temperatures with mostly clear skies look to be in the mid 40s.
The ridge further weakens Tuesday in response to an upper level trough of low pressure dropping down from the northwest. This brings a few clouds and a slight chance of showers Tuesday with an increasing chance of some showers through the second half of next week.
Remember too, the vernal equinox occurs on Tuesday, March 19th. This is the day that, if you were on the equator, you would have equal daytime and nighttime as the sun is directly overhead. As for the rest of us, we call it the first day of spring!
