Flurry Storm ’07

I figure the title was an appropriate description for today’s excitement.  At least it brought my weather mojo back.  Technically we had about what I expected precipwise.  I see Scappoose had .05" melted snow, VUO & HIO both had .01".  Other stations had a trace.  If it would have been rain, we would have just seen some sprinkles and the forecast would have been pretty much right on.  BUT when it falls as several hours of flurries, it’s a different story.  I expected a brief flurry at best.  Well, at least it looked nice.
It appears that the atmosphere has slightly warmed over us this evening.  Our KPTV tower temp is right around 32 degrees now at 1,900′.  It was down around 30 late this afternoon.  So even though there won’t be much if any warming overnight (no mild onshore flow), our temperatures shouldn’t drop…assuming we don’t get clearing.  Models and satellite pictures look pretty socked in upstream over Western Washington, so I’m assuming we’ll stay cloudy overnight.
Moving on…strong high pressure briefly settles in east of the Cascades tomorrow evening and Tuesday A.M.  I notice the MM5 shows 5-7 mb. PDX-DLS by Tuesday A.M.  It is killed pretty quickly later Tuesday by the next system topping the offshore ridge.  That weak system brings us light precip. Tuesday night.
I notice the period from Wednesday-Sunday is quite cool…850 mb temps stay low with several wet systems…great for snow in the Cascades…Mark Nelsen