East instead of South

Posted by Rufus La Lone on

Friday December 9
The threat for strong winds has changed, as the track of the storms will remain offshore; however, strong east-to-NE winds over the Puget Sound & out of the Columbia Gorge will be in play, at times, so Mug up & read on.
A Low center pressure Pacific storm is charting to drop to approx 979 mb as it approaches north Vancouver Island; however, the storm center will NOT move onshore; instead it will track off the coasts of WA & OR, slowly ‘filling in’ (weakening) as it moves onshore into California late Sunday.  Hence, southerly WINDS will be nominal; however, E to NE winds in the Puget Sound will get noticed.  We will get some precipitation out of this storm, today (Fri) lasting through much of Saturday.  The air mass will cool down as the weekend unfolds, so snow levels will drop below the passes.  Quite wet & windy in the far southern portions of OR and into northern CA.  Localized fog could reform on Sunday & Monday as winds diminish; temps will be close to, if not below, freezing is the sky clears.
The Tuesday storm, which we mentioned last time a possible wind producer, is now likely to track offshore, posing no threat for wind or much precip on Tue & Wed.  In fact, High pressure will build east of the Cascades and set up a STRONG east wind situation as next week progresses.  Fraser wind should increase a bit late Tue night, and be a factor for a few days.   For east Portland & the Columbia Gorge, the wind will increase daily so that by Fri & Sat Dec 16,17 it could be quite strong.  Other than a few showers late Tue into Wed, DRY weather will be the main feature of next week.  The winds will ease up by Sunday the 18th.
Our next period of rain could begin during the week of Dec 19-23.  Model runs have trended two different ways; 1) a pattern brings another COLD High pressure dome down from interior of Canada setting up a cold & wet, low-elevation-snow threat during that week; or 2) a chilly & damp system drops in from the NW on Tue, followed by a series of  stronger, much wetter storms for mid-to-late week Dec 21,22, drenching the PNW before and during the Christmas weekend.  Plenty of time to refine this outlook next week.
A White Christmas is not indicated, as of yet, on the long-range charts.  
“Money may talk, but today’s dollar doesn’t have enough cents to say very much."
-Rufus
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