9:40pm Thursday
Today has been refreshing…brief morning clouds and then cooler temps. We hit 83 in Portland this afternoon; down from 89 yesterday and 90s on Monday and Tuesday.
Most noticeable is the cleaner airmass over us. Everyone in the metro area is breathing GOOD air quality this evening
You probably noticed there is still high-level smoke overhead, evidenced by the yellowish sunshine. Even that goes away Friday as upper-level winds turn westerly for a few days.
We are getting another push of marine air this evening and models show low clouds coming up mainly the Columbia River for a gray start in much of Cowlitz, Clark, and Multnomah counties Friday. After that you can expect a very BLUE sky overhead since that smoke should be gone.
As expected, thunderstorms have fired up across central and eastern Oregon this evening. Take a look at the 100+ cloud/ground strikes in the past half hour
Many of these are producing very little rain so obviously this is a huge concern for fire starts. Hopefully new fires remain small. I saw what appears to be a new fire producing a large smoke plume just southwest of Summer Lake earlier this afternoon on GOES-16 imagery.
What’s ahead? Typical late August weather…a little heat, but cooler periods as well. It’s pretty obvious we have passed the worst of summer. That is normal for us. Nights are getting longer; giving us cooler nights. In fact even the middle of the metro area should drop into the mid 50s tonight and tomorrow night. Nice.
There should be one more brief hot period Sunday-Tuesday, then cooling again later next week. Notice the good agreement on the ECMWF ensemble chart; a peak around Monday/Tuesday, then quite a dip later next week before more warming.
Down here at ground level that translates to high temps back into the 90s early in the week and then back down around 80 (or below) a week from now. This is what the same ECMWF model thinks Portland will look like over the next 10+ days
Rain? Unlikely we’ll see anything other than sprinkles out of marine clouds the next 10 days. Only 6 out of 51 ensemble members bring .10″ or more to Portland in the next 2 weeks.
Chief Meteorologist Mark Nelsen
FOX 12 Weather Blog 
Possibility for widespread smoke through Tuesday. Cliff Mass has posted on it, calling it a “smokestorm”.
Wow, it’s really quiet on this blog. I thought there would be more talk about what could be coming up in the next couple of days…lol
Nothing but bad news for the next few days. We’ll smash right through that 90+ record and smoke thrown in at no extra charge. Whoopie 😦
There is a light at the end of the tunnel finally. After Wednesday, we should be in the 70s for quite a while. We REALLY need rain.
That would be really nice! Cooler temps in the morning will be nice too!
You have heard of rainstorms, snowstorms, and windstorms. It is time to create another one:
the smokestorm.
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-smokestorm-is-imminent-for-western.html
Kinda sad really.
The new normal?
Well, smoky skies are back today. One good thing- at least the temperatures are still pleasant, being in the low 70’s. the heat is also coming back on Sunday and Monday, however.
W7ENK, have you looked at the 18Z GFS on Monday? The CAPE is looking good and I also looked at the “LI” and the “K-Index” and they all look good too. We’ll see how things turn out 🙂
Fingers crossed….
NWS mentions it too.
Yea, but just looked and the NWS took out the mention of thunderstorms in their forecast. I haven’t looked at the models yet because I was helping my sister and her husband with The Oregon Bigfoot Festival. I’ll look and see what the models are saying 😉
I just looked at the models (GFS & EURO) to see what’s up for Monday. The GFS shows thunderstorms for Sunday (but it doesn’t look that great) but for Monday, the GFS is screaming thunderstorms. The “LI” and “K-index” really look great. The EURO has some CAPE (I found the “K-index” (which is good but not great) but couldn’t find the “LI” for the EURO). We’ll just need to see how things go when we get closer. The NAM and HRRR should start showing up on their models.
If the models keep showing this, I guess the NWS should come back around and say something about it. 🙂
It’s me Lee lol, had a change in youtube at any rate.
WOW is all I can say we brought in about 3 kw-hrs already.I like the bright sun and cooler days.
at any rate we used a generator to heat up the pressure cooker and then after pressure was built up, we coasted using the sun’s rays to made a nice delicious lunch.
Sun 08/05/2018 -1 Kwhr 65207 Valid
Fri 08/10/2018 5 65261 Valid
Got to love this weather.
Wish we could get the thunder storms
54.1F for a minimum this morning- that’s the lowest temperature I’ve had since July 8th. A bit of marine type cloud invading the sky late this morning.Together with the breeze it’s keeping temperatures down a little.
had to have a heater this morning lol.
I walked outside and what did I feel. A nice brisk feeling in the air. Feels good 🤗😉❤
I have a bit of a weather phenomenon question. Yesterday we met some friends at Glenhaven Skatepark on 82nd (below Rocky Butte). Our friends were saying “you just missed the rain!” Baffled, I looked around and saw nothing but dry grass and concrete and dusty dirt. They were adement that it rained enough for people to leave and the concrete to get wet. My entire trip there and while I was there, not a cloud in the sky nor a drop of rain. What’s the scoop?
Felt a drizzle near Sellwood last night as well. Drips on the windshield. Found it odd and kept looking for the cloud. Covered by smoke I’m guessing
Long-range outlooks don’t look very good for rain in the next month or so. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/
Three-month outlook is on the dry side, too, but a) it’s far enough out that I take it with a grain of salt, b) even if it does end up on the dry side, odds are still very high we will be getting at least some rain by then.
Forecast looks heavenly! I’d even take 100 degree weather as long as the air is clear!
The 5-minute observations are rounded because they are actually reported in centigrade. 32°c is actually 89 and 90°F which can cause some confusion.
Could really do with some rain over here on the West side… and I mean, real rain.
Super dry all the way down the coast as well.
Tired of these gorgeous sunny days?
No, I’m tired of paying for the water my garden is drinking. Last month’s bill was 182 bucks! I’m ready for the return of some free sky water…
we used the last of the rain we captured during the rain event yesterday.
Yeah, Milwaukie didn’t have a rain event yesterday.
I’m hoping for some rain real soon, those fires are quite bad.
If someone could explain this to me: I go to the NOAA web site and see 90 degrees recorded at 4:45pm on 8/15 for PDX, but the official high is 89. What gives?
I saw that, too. Someone is fudging the numbers!