Tuesday began clear for most of the Willamette Valley, but folks in downtown Portland and Vancouver had to wait until 10-11 am to break out of the clouds. The 10:00 am visible satellite image below shows how isolated this fog was to downtown Portland.
Thankfully, those areas of patchy fog burned off by 11-11:30, and the entire valley basked in sunshine through 2pm before high clouds from a weak system off our coast began to move into NW Oregon. This system will bring some light rain to Western Washington and may bring some drizzle to the Oregon Coast/Portland metro Wednesday morning, but most places outside the immediate coast should not see measurable rain from this system. The accumulated precipitation chart from the University of Washington WRF model below shows less than 0.01″ of liquid sunshine for Portland through 4pm Wednesday. Needless to say, the rivers should stay within their banks with this storm!
Credit: University of Washington
But after Wednesday’s weak front, a ridge will move inland and strengthen, giving us mostly sunny skies Thursday with increasing clouds Friday. See if you can dip out of work early on Friday and spend an afternoon in Forest Park, the budding trees and pleasant temperatures should make for a sanguine end to the work week.
Unfortunately, rain returns Friday night as a rather strong cold front comes through. The mountains should see a couple inches of snow from this system – nothing major, but enough to keep the ski runs fresh with new snow throughout Saturday. I got some new skis/boots over the past week and am hoping to head up to the slopes to test them out on either Saturday or Sunday, which should be calmer but have no new snow.
Credit: WeatherTogether models
Friday night’s front will usher in an extended period of cooler/wetter-than-average weather, so we should see some continued late-season snowbuild in the mountains. We won’t get any massive “powder days” out of this setup, but it should be good to restore our mountain snowpack closer to normal, which is now between 80-90% of normal for the Oregon Cascades.
Early spring is one of my very favorite times of the year, and I’ve gotten to appreciate it more as I’ve gotten older. It isn’t anywhere near as pretty as March or April when the trees are beginning to blossom in earnest, but there’s something to be said for the buds that precede the blossoms. They are the first sign of a bounty of life coming our way, and they are a true joy to experience.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the great weather this week!
Charlie
