Cool then Warm

The ninth month is upon us.  Cool start, with a warm-to-hot mid-month outlook.  Meteorological fall begins today.  

The recent rain & showers around the PNW helped clean the air, aid in fire suppression and generally pleased most people.  The last ‘official’ holiday of the summer starts later today (for US), followed by many schools opening next week.  The weather over the holiday looks pleasant today and Sat, with a chance for a few thunderstorms across the southern half of the Willamette Valley & Cascades later Saturday.  Muggy, too.  Temps in the upper 70s to low 80s.  On Sunday, a cooler pattern returns with a cool pacific air mass moving onshore.  Scattered showers possible on Sunday and Labor Day, although the latest model runs minimize the amount of precip - so it could turn out to be a decent, mild Sunday & Monday.  

Next week continues to chart on the cooler side of normal, with a chance for widely scattered showers at times throughout the week.  No organized pacific storm is expected.  That gets us to the weekend of Sep 9,10.  Right now, it looks sunny & warmer than the preceding week.  

The Sep 11-17 period is trending DRY & WARM.  Temps are charting to slowly ramp up every couple of days in that timeline, with 90s possible across most of western OR and SW WA by the weekend of the Mt Angel Oktoberfest - which runs Thu - Sunday, Sep 14-17.  The northern half of western WA, BC and the coastal zones will be cooler, per normal, but dry.  

Given the possible summer-like temps mid-September, the cooler early start to the month will be appreciated.  The "diurnal swing” in Sep will be excellent for wine grape maturation.  We will post an update on Labor Day.