Category: Salem Area Forecast

Sunnier days ahead

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area ForecastLeave a comment

After almost 5 weeks of colder than normal weather, hard freezes, and a number of little snow events, we are quickly making the transition into milder spring-like weather.  As of 2pm it was 55° in Salem!  This coming weekend will feature the warmest weather we have seen since October with highs in the 60s.  Spring is coming!

March 11

A few details

It’s possible both Thursday and Friday mornings start off frosty; however, once we get through this week I doubt we see any more frosty mornings until next fall – a sure sign that the seasons are changing.  🙂

Tuesday:  Lots of clouds, a few sunbreaks, showers, and even some hail is likely in a few places.

Wednesday:  Partly cloudy with a very slight chance of an afternoon shower; otherwise mostly dry.

Thursday – Saturday:  Cool mornings with lots of clouds around.  These days have the potential to be warmer, but for now it looks like cloudy skies will keep us in the 50s.

Sunday & Monday:  Warm & sunny March weather.

 

 

A cold & snowy March day

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area ForecastLeave a comment

I know I’ve said this before, but I need to claim my victories and give myself a pat on the back when I can, because it doesn’t always work out this well lol. 😉   I’m very happy with how the forecast is turning out so far.  Very light (and spotty) sleet & ice early this morning transitioned to snow around 10am.  Since then we have had snow or a snow/rain mix falling nearly all day long with temperatures holding steady in the mid 30s.   

As of 5pm, Salem’s high temp was 37°.  I imagine we are done “warming up” for the day and we should gradually begin cooling back down from here on out setting the stage for the next (and perhaps better) opportunity for accumulating snow.

What’s next?

We get a bit of a break this evening with only a few scattered snow showers.  Tonight we eventually cool off to around 32 – 34°.  Around 4 – 7am a more organized batch of snow showers will roll through.  This could give anyone a quick inch or so of snow.  It all depends on where the heaviest showers end up, but don’t be surprised to see snow tomorrow morning.

During the day Thursday expect more rain & snow showers, but roads should be fine once again.

I don’t want to be known as a broken record, so I’ll just tell you that Thursday night and Friday’s weather will be a near perfect copy of the weather we see tonight and Thursday.  😉

Saturday – Monday will be dry and sunny.  Still chilly, especially in the mornings, but with how it’s been going lately I suppose we should take what we can get.  Lows 28 – 32° and highs 48 – 53°.

 

Wintry weather update

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and BeyondLeave a comment

Here we go again with more chances for snow only this time it’s March.  I’ll get to all the fine details soon, but first the extended forecast.

March 5

In a nutshell I see several more opportunities for wintry weather before gradually warming up Saturday through Monday.

All the details

Tonight we slowly cool off back close to freezing.  Just like last week’s little snowstorm I’ll keep a close eye on the temperatures as they will be an important indicator as to what falls from the sky later on.  Regardless of temps, precip should arrive around midnight (give or take an hour or two).  Precip will be very light and spotty at first as we have very dry air for it to overcome.  Depending on how thick the cold air above us is we could see freezing rain, sleet or snow.  I’m leaning towards a mix of all three, but more ice than snow as we will be right in the “battle zone” of the different air masses.

Precipitation will be very light:  This looks like a drier version of last week’s storm that dropped 1 – 2 inches of snow.  I’m going for a dusting of snow with areas of ice.  Could be a messy early morning commute.

It’s March now which means even on a cloudy day the angle of the sun and it’s increased energy is enough to melt snow and ice off of roads from roughly 9 or 10am to 5pm), so travel during most of the day should be just fine even if snow is still flying through the air.

Cold air will be rushing in behind this storm giving us our second shot at snow Wednesday night.  This is manly for the east side of the Willamette Valley.  Basically the further east you live the better chance you have at seeing an inch or 2 of snow Wednesday evening/night.

Early Thursday morning a batch of heavier showers looks to roll in sometime between 4am and 10am.  Temps are forecast to be right around 31 – 34° which means we could pick up a quick inch or two of very wet/slushy snow to start our day off.  More rain and snow showers will fall the rest of the day.  Just like Wednesday, there should be no travel concerns past about 10am.  The rest of the day should be just fine.

Same story for Friday.  Morning snow will give way to a few afternoon rain showers.

Beyond Saturday it looks like we have a brief warm up and dry break coming for Sunday and Monday.  If this holds true it will feel very nice after this cold week.

THE CASCADES AND BEYOND

Tonight through Saturday morning I expect snow at times in the Coast Range, and plenty of snow in the Cascades even during the daytime up there above 2000′.  The Gorge will also be messy, so if you plan on traveling through any of these regions be prepared for wintry weather with snow and ice.

Frigid March weather

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area ForecastLeave a comment

It’s March 4th, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.  We are currently under the influence of a modified arctic air mass.  At my place in the hills of south Salem I recorded a low temp of 18°!!!  Check out the extremely cold temperatures across the region from this morning.

7am temps 3.4

Doesn’t look like March…  Here are a couple of pics from earlier this morning which convey pretty well just how chilly it was out there.  The first pic is east of John Day, and the second pic is the top of Santiam Pass by Hoodoo.

Extended forecast

Cold March Forecast

Highlights & Details

Rest of today & Tuesday:  Very cold, especially at night and through the morning hours.  Lots of sunshine.

Wednesday:  Subject to change; however, confidence is growing that we will see some light snow, or a wintry mix of ice and snow before switching over to a rain/snow mix during the afternoon hours.  This could be similar to the little snowstorm we had last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Thursday:  A few showers.  Snow could mix in as we stay in a chilly pattern.

Friday:  Heavy showers with wet snow, ice pellets, & hail all possible.  Staying cool.

Saturday:  Showers possible.

Sunday:  Drying out and sunny.

 

 

Snowy central Oregon and cold start to March

On By bryanweatherIn Extra!!, Salem Area Forecast, Weather Year 2018/2019Leave a comment

Happy Friday!!  I’ve revised the forecast for today as we should be dry the rest of the day, but staying chilly.  This will kick off a multi-day stretch of dry weather with the next chance for precipitation not showing up until Wednesday.

Next I wanted to share a few images with you all to help convey just how much snow is on the ground east of the Cascades. 

First up is a satellite pic from yesterday before the clouds moved in all the way.  Some of the white you see are clouds especially along the edges, but for the most part it’s all snow cover from the Cascades eastward.  Have I told you how much I love the clarity of this new satellite?  Notice how you can easily see both the Columbia and Snake Rivers as they flow through the frozen landscape.  Pretty neat ehh?!?

snow cover 2.28

Next I have several images saved from various traffic cams over the past few days.  Most of these come from Central Oregon where 25 to 35+ inches of snow have fallen this week alone!

 

Lastly I have a few pics from Bend, OR taken Thursday morning where they have received over 30 inches of snow over the past several days.  Absolutely incredible!!!  Photos taken by Darius Marvasti.

 

Speaking of snow, check out these images showing how the snowpack in Oregon has progressed from early December to now.  A major turnaround from where we started!

 

Looking ahead I see several dry days headed our way.  This dry weather will be accompanied by some very cold temperatures.  It will be the battle of the seasons with the early March sun versus the very cold air mass.  As a result I expect morning lows to dip all the way down into the low to mid 20s Saturday through Wednesday.  For the afternoons I’m banking on the early March sun getting us up close to 50° despite the very cold mornings.  You may not think upper 40s/close to 50 is all that warm, and it isn’t, but keep in mind that if we had this very same air mass in January we would be talking about highs in the mid to upper 30s instead.  Just a little perspective for you 😉

PS.  No lengthy snowstorm recap, but I was happy with how everything turned out Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  It appears as though everyone recieved about 1 to 2 inches of snow here in the Salem area.  Felt nice to have a snow forecast pretty much work out 🙂

Feb 27th forecast

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area ForecastLeave a comment

I will likely give a little storm recap later, but I’ve got to say I’m happy with how the forecast turned out.  I’m even more happy everyone reached the 1 to 3 inch range this go around!  The colder temps obviously helped out a lot.

Extended forecast

Feb 27

Looking ahead I can’t find any sign of warmer weather, but at least we have several dry and sunny days coming up.

Thursday:  Just a couple morning snow showers possible.  Dry much of the day with some late afternoon rain or mixed showers.  Little to no accumulation.  Maybe up to an inch in the higher hilly areas.  No travel concerns.

Friday:  Watching for another chance at a snowy morning before slowly drying out during the afternoon.

Saturday – Tuesday:  Cold & dry.  Morning lows will dip well into the 20s and even with the sunshine, high will only make it into the upper 40s.

Another snow event

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

First off a quick little demonstration on how a little bit of elevation can make a huge difference in weather conditions. This first pic is from roughly 200′ in elevation.  The next pic is my neighborhood at 475′ in elevation.  Both pics were taken Monday morning.

 

Moral of this story is that snowfall totals can vary quite a lot even right here in Salem/Keizer which is just another reason why predicting snowfall is such a pain.

Moving on, I’m tracking another snow event heading our way with some factors working against us seeing a bit of snow and some factors working in our favor if you’re rooting for more snow.

One factor working against a lot of snow tonight would be this dry air.  Dry air means precip has a tougher time reaching the ground.  Another factor to consider is this storm has less moisture than the last storm which again equals less snowfall potential. 

Working in our favor for a bit of snow are the cold temps.  Across the region we are a solid 3 – 6 degrees colder than this exact time Sunday.  This means it will not take long at all for snow to begin sticking this go around.  The second factor working in our favor for more snow is the trend.  They say “the trend is your friend,” and the trend on the weather models today has been increasing the precip tonight.  This of course means the opportunity exists for us to exceed current snow forecasts including my own.

With all that said I expect many of us will receive somewhere between 1 & 3 inches of snow.  Sadly, there’s almost always a “loser” when it comes to snowfall in these parts, and I imagine some of you will see less than an inch.  Either way be prepared for area roads tomorrow morning to be icy, slushy, and or snowy.  It’s late February though and the roads should be just wet by mid to late morning thanks to the increasing sun angle and longer days.

I should have an updated look ahead and a quick update on tonight’s storm later this evening.

Be safe