By Gordon McCraw, Meteorologist for the Tillamook County Pioneer
Good news, the high pressure ridge over the area continues to give us fair skies but with radiational cooling, we saw some chilly overnight temperatures. It looks like this morning’s low temperature at the airport fell to 28 degrees. Combine that with some calm winds and some patchy early morning fog and some areas saw some frost as well.
The ridge remains tomorrow so another mostly sunny day after the fog and frost clears, still the calm winds, highs near 53, then another mostly clear night with calm winds allows the overnight temperature to drop to near 36, still with some patchy early morning fog so more frost is likely.
Wednesday should be another sunny day after the fog and frost clears again, still the calm winds, highs up near 56. It appears we will see increasing clouds Wednesday night ahead of a weak front approaching the coast that does give us a slight chance of rain starting in the early morning hours, and we could still see some patchy morning fog, the low near 37.
The weak front passes to the north Thursday so we still have a slight chance of some light precipitation with daytime highs near 50, overnight lows near 36. Given the temperatures and the slight chance of precipitation, this precipitation could fall in the form of light snow flurries across the top of the passes Thursday and Friday night or early morning hours.
With high pressure centered off to the northwest, we will have a northerly or northwesterly flow that will cool things down again Friday on through the weekend, with mostly sunny days the high temperatures are in the upper 40s while nighttime lows dip down to around 30 for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Finally, if things appear to be a little weird today, it might be because there is a full moon, the first of 2025. I read that it is known as the Wolf Moon. It is known as the Wolf Moon because, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, wolves were more likely to be heard howling during this time. A more fitting name has been used in the past, a Cold Moon or a Freezing Moon. Looking at the area temperatures I can see why.
(Close-up image of full moon in the Northern Hemisphere as seen from a private observatory in central Europe. Image credit: Smartshots International/Getty Images)