Gray days ahead, then lots of rain Thursday through the weekend

We were lucky in the metro area today with bright sunshine and calm wind. Temperatures are topping out in the mid 40s under the mainly clear sky. Most other areas north and south of Portland were stuck in low clouds or fog much of the day and cooler. The cold east wind has died down and we’ll have calm wind the next two days.

Get ready for lots of gray weather, I don’t see a sunny day like today within the next week. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be especially gloomy/gray with little or no sunshine as weak “onshore” flow develops. That brings in more moisture off the Pacific ocean and cloud cover.

We expect the cloud cover tonight to keep just about the entire metro area above freezing. That means we shouldn’t have any delayed or cancelled schools west of the Cascades and no ice on roads for the Tuesday morning commute. It’ll be a different story in the Columbia River Gorge with mainly frozen roads once again.

We may also see a few sprinkles or a shower tomorrow & Wednesday. In general we’ll be mainly dry.

Starting Thursday we’re heading into a very wet weather pattern again. Numerous weather systems will arrive on the West Coast, none of them especially powerful or cold. Expect lots of valley rain and lots of mountain snow through the weekend and into at least early next week.

There’s no sign of a cold arctic blast or widespread lowland snow/freezing rain in the next 8 days.

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