Hot & Windy

Check out the fires exploding across SW Oregon. Medford's 5pm relative humidity was 5%!

A fun weather day today!  A start with all the windows closed and the heat cranking, but mid-morning the windows are open and the wind is blowing, and then by late afternoon it’s a very warm wind and leaves/branches are flying all over the place in the metro area. 

Good times at the beach too…a bunch of KPTV employees had plans to visit the beach early this week and I told them GO!  The weather didn’t disappoint;  90 at Newport, 88 at Tillamook, 93 at North Bend!  That only happens once or twice a year at best. 

Obviously back here in the metro area we were held back by the “cooler” air coming through the Gorge.  The Dalles was 82 today.  The forecast tomorrow is 90 or so.  So keep in mind that the airmass itself warms a few degrees tomorrow, up to +24 deg C at 850mb, PLUS, the low level air coming in through the Gorge should warm 8-10 degrees.  That’s why I kept 94 in the forecast for tomorrow, instead of panicking and saying it would only hit 89 or 90.  At the very least, we’ll finally get that 90 degree day to push us over the yearly record of 23 days that is currently tied.  Along those lines, I think tomorrow will PROBABLY be the last 90 degree day of the year.  Yes, I know, it can still hit 90 in early October, but it gets tougher to do with such long nights and weak sun at the end of September.

As for wind, I see the gradient is back up over 6 millibars again; very healthy for late September.  Peak gusts were in the 40-50 mph range out in the western Gorge, and 30-40 mph in the eastern metro area today and should stay that way through tomorrow morning.   We don’t totally lose the easterly wind until early Wednesday morning though.  We actually get a good onshore push Wednesday afternoon/night, so with low clouds Thursday morning, we’ll have a tough time getting much above 70-75 that day.

September is going to end dry and warm…more ridging for the last few days of the month…enjoy!  There are plenty of storm-tracking days waiting for us November through February…hopefully.

Chief Meteorologist – Mark Nelsen