A Very Dry Start To February.

This February will start out very dry and mild as a big ridge of high pressure will build over us.

the Images below are the CPC 6-10 day outlooks for temperature and precipitation.

Notice how the whole western U.S. is above average in temperature and below average in precip.

This dry weather will be caused by a big upper level ridge developing over us on Wednesday and sending the jet stream way to our north.

The image below is the 00z GFS-WRF showing  the upper level high on Thursday.(indicated by the "H")

This setup will also create quite strong east winds especially near the gorge.

Now the reason for the east wind will be low level high pressure will bottle up against the cascades in the Columbia River valley, and will cause the pressure gradient to be around 7-8mb between PDX and DLS which would give the gorge good winds, but in addition to that a shallow layer of cold air will be present and the big difference in temperature should increase the winds even more.

In the image below the 00Z GFS-WRF shows the high pressure bottled up behind the cascades on Friday. 

If you really like strong wind head up to Crown Point on Friday or Saturday, winds will be gusting around 80-100 mph there!

My forecast:

Timberline forecast:

Wednesday: Snow showers, mainly before 10am. High near 32. West wind around 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. 

Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow showers before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. Northwest wind between 5 and 9 mph. 

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 35. East southeast wind between 5 and 8 mph. 

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. South wind between 9 and 11 mph. 

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 36. 

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 25. 

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. 

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. 

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 34. 

Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. 

Thanks for reading

-Michael