Thanksgiving is approaching and I hope you all have had a really nice weekend!

The theme over the next several days is grey. I still see no major rainstorms coming our way, but cloud cover remains rather persistent for the duration of the coming week with occasional shots of rain Tuesday through Saturday. Details below:

This next image illustrates why I think Salem will be wet Tuesday – Thursday of this week, but not a total washout. These are 234 hour rain totals ending early Thursday morning, and notice the steep increase as one heads north of Salem. This has Salem receiving 0.5″ (half an inch of rain), but well over an inch for Vancouver, Longview, and Kelso.

The final image shows 24 hour rain totals ending 10PM Friday night. You can see the shading is spotty and there are more greens and less blues and orange colors. This tells us we will see scattered showers and downpours Friday, but once again, I see no huge soakings for the Salem area.

I have slightly lower confidence in the forecast for the weekend, but I can tell you it will be cooler. Currently, I’m going for scattered showers Saturday, and then dry Sunday. By Monday morning (December 1st) I expect low temperatures will dip into the upper 20s for the first time this winter. Despite the cool weather, Monday should be mostly sunny and dry with highs in the lower 40s.

The Cascades

Other than some brief snowfall Friday, there should be no travel concerns for the Cascades this week. Good for travel, but not so good if you’re waiting to hit the slopes. Still very early in the season and remember, warm Novembers don’t necessarily lead to warm winters. Take a look at this post here for some evidence regarding the topic of Warm Novembers.

For now though, no big mountain snowfalls this week.

Have a great and safe week!