Sunday, August 1st, 4:15 A.M.
Good morning!
It’s been tough forecasting over the past couple of days given the cloud cover and some smoke in the sky. On Saturday, the west side of the metro area reached the mid to upper 80s, while the east side was in the upper 70s and low 80s. Clouds & smoke will dictate how warm (or cool) we are over the next couple of afternoons. It doesn’t look like we’ll contend with as much cloud cover today, especially as we head into the afternoon. With increasing sunshine, temps should make a run at 90 degrees. Our atmosphere will warm up a bit between Monday and Tuesday. While we *are* anticipating some thin smoke to be in the sky, we should still manage to climb into the low to mid 90s. Tuesday should be the hottest day, unless if we get some surprise smoke from nearby wildfires. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, high pressure will back off, opening the door to a trough of low pressure dropping out of the Gulf of Alaska. There’s high confidence that a significant cool down is coming, with highs sinking from about 90 to 80 degrees between Wednesday and Thursday. Sometime between Thursday and Friday, showers will likely make a return. This will include much of western Washington and northwest Oregon. As this trough swings through the Northwest, we’ll watch highs dip into the 70s Friday and Saturday. Most signs point to us drying out Saturday & Sunday.
How much rain is on the way? Computer model guidance suggests about a quarter of an inch or less at Portland International Airport. Given we are on a 46 day dry streak and will probably reach 50 days, any rain helps!
Have a great Sunday!
