Unusually long stretch of warm/dry March weather has arrived

We “overachieved” in Portland today, with temperatures ending up warmer than modeling/forecasts had shown. PDX hit 66 degrees, the warmest since that Pineapple Express-induced 67 degree high back in early December.

This is the just the beginning of a well-advertised warm and dry spell. We’ve been talking about this for the last 8-10 days!

HIGHLIGHTS

• We are guaranteed warm/dry weather through Monday with sunny skies each day in the inland valleys of Oregon and SW Washington.
• High temperatures jump a few degrees tomorrow, then a few more degrees Saturday through Monday.
• A gusty east wind near the Gorge tomorrow and early Saturday goes away Saturday night. Sunday and Monday will be calm most areas.
• Coastal beaches will be warmest tomorrow and Saturday. A much cooler westerly breeze will drop high temps from around 70 on the beaches Saturday to around 50-55 Sunday! Maybe a few spots of fog/clouds too.
• The next chance for showers is Wednesday or Thursday. Yep, you’ve got a solid 6-7 days of dry weather in mid-March.

A strong upper-level ridge has developed just off the West Coast, looking about like this in the upper-atmosphere

By Saturday the ridge is centered over B.C.

On Monday the ridge is centered over the inland Northwest.

Then later next week the ridge has weakened and a cool northwest flow is back...showers and 50s once again in the lowlands

Surface temperature forecasts from the various models have been running colder than one would expect based on the pattern (offshore flow+sun+warm 850mb temps). It was good to see today turn our warmer than models were forecasting. That makes me think the +10 to +12 deg (C) temps WILL produce highs well into the 70s Saturday through Monday. Right now our forecast looks like this...notice only Monday is likely to see a record high for the date

The first three of those records above were set during the warmest March period on record at PDX. In March 1947 we hit 80 degrees.

IF we have 5 days at/above 70, that will one of the very few times we’ve had so many consecutive 70+ days in March.

That’s all I have for this evening. Enjoy and take advantage of a rare March warm/dry spell!