Spring Showers & Sunshine

 

Wrapping up the month with cloudiness and hope for a pleasant April.  Let’s ponder the options.

 

Clouds & showers (moving north from a California Low pressure system) will slowly yield to warmer sunshine in many PNW areas today.  Heavy rain along the OR/ID border will slowly move NE.  Additional showers / thunderstorms possible in the southern quadrant of OR, as well.

 

This week: expect Tue to be the warmest and driest day of the week, with mild temps & an 'easy breeze'.  A weak, but rather chilly, system will edge into the PNW on Wed, north-to-south, so clouds will return, as will the chance for precipitation, most of which will fall north of Portland.  The storm is not modeled to produce a lot of rain, merely enough to dampen roads and refresh early Spring flowers.  April Fool’s Day will be mostly dry & cool.  The far corner of NW WA & Vancouver Island could get another splash or two of rain on Friday; most of us should remain mild & dry.  

 

The weekend ahead: we had hoped that model solutions for an amazingly warm & dry weekend would verify.  Well, that’s gone.  While not a total wash-out, charts now indicate on/off period of showers, with sun breaks.  Temperatures should remain on the mild side, overall.  All that will set the stage for a wet start to the week of Apr 4-8.  

 

Sunday night through Tue Apr 4, looks damp & cool, esp from Portland/Salem north.  A high pressure ridge, currently centered well offshore of OR will slowly build NE, turning off the cool showers and setting up a pleasant 2nd half to next week.  It will get quite WINDY across southern OR, both sides of the mountains; northern CA, too.  That wind will shift northeasterly by late Thu evening, which will bring on WARM temperatures in western OR on Fri.  That warmth will also nudge north over the Puget Sound by later Fri the 8th.  All of areas west side will experience a pleasant Saturday, Apr 9.  (Yes, we recognize it is only a long-range prog.)  A large Low pressure trough is charting to fill the Gulf of Alaska as the weekend of Apr 9 & Palm Sunday.  This, if verified, will set up a rather cold, WET period Apr 11-14.  As a matter of note: model solutions suggest a cold Low off the coast of NW WA, which could open the door for a pre-Easter cold snap.  Ponder Point, for now.