Believe it or not, I actually don’t have much of anything to add to yesterday morning’s post. Models are in unanimous agreement on the weather pattern ahead:
- Warm and sunny inland next 3 days
- Warm and sunny coast through Thursday, then some fog/clouds Friday
- High temperatures near 80 in the valleys tomorrow, then well into 80s Thursday
- Coastal temperatures likely warmest Thursday, possibly before the noon hour only
Here are the Portland records and expected highs; I think our numbers here at FOX12 have only varied a couple degrees in the past 5 days. Quite a consistent forecast for our little “mini-heatwave”.
Forecast 850 mb temps are still around +16-17 over Salem tomorrow afternoon, and +17-18 over Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow’s surface wind is more northerly than easterly (no east wind through Gorge), so I’m thinking it’s quite possible we only hit 77-78 at PDX, but decided to stay with the 80 since we’ve had it on there for days. I also raised Thursday’s high temperature a bit closer to the 90 the WRF-GFS has consistently been forecasting. That WRF has +19 deg 850mb temps over us Thursday with strong easterly flow over the Cascades plus southeast flow up above. That’s a setup for an April scorcher!
By the way, when we hit 80 (tomorrow or Thursday), it’ll be the 2nd earliest on record.
We’ll see how it goes…for now, let’s do a poll. What do you consider HOT in Portland? No, not what your favorite temperature is or what is best for working outside etc…but for me to use the word HOT on a 7 Day forecast May-September, how warm should the temperature be?
Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen
Posted by Mark Nelsen 
FOX 12 Weather Blog 