Category: The Mountains and Beyond

Weak sauce storms

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

As predicted, the “storms” the past couple of days have been extremely weak. Plenty of clouds, but only 0.19″ of rainfall this entire week with a few sunbreaks – just not enough clearing to really see the aurora borealis earlier this week. :/

It has been very mild lately. We are running 4 degrees above average for the month so far! So, what’s ahead? Well, the short answer is not much. Just a cooler version of what we have been seeing:

  1. No big storms through Friday.
  2. No strong winds or heavy rains through Friday.
  3. No big dumps of snow for the Cascades through Friday.

Looking beyond next Friday, I see the potential for cooler weather, maybe a chance for some bigger rain producers, and a higher chance for mountain snow. More details to come as time goes on, but it does appear our very mild November weather will be ending.

SUNDAY: Lots of clouds with scattered showers. High of 54°.

MON – WED: A few light showers Monday, and then dry. Similar to what we have been seeing only cooler: lots of clouds and a few sunbreaks here and there. Lows 35 to 40°, and highs in the mid 50s.

THU: The “strongest” storm of the week will affect us Thursday bringing steadier rain, breezy winds (nothing big though), plus a few inches of mountain snow. Morning low of 44° and an afternoon high of 54°.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and as always, stay safe!

Wet weather

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

We basically have three separate storms rolling through our region, but these storms are very small, and the energy with them is sort of splitting. What does that mean for us? Well, I thought about writing a whole paragraph trying to explain it, but let’s use some visuals instead. 🙂

This first image shows what a healthy consolidated jet stream looks like. This is from last week when we experienced strong gusty winds and heavy showers.

Notice the nicely packed lines butting up right into Oregon (indicated with the arrow). This consolidated jet stream directs most of the energy in the atmosphere into the same spot allowing stronger storms to develop. Think of this stronger and more consolidated jet stream as like being a train directing all of its force into one location. Now, take a look at the forecasted pattern for this Thursday.

What a mess! There are three separate pieces of energy hitting the west coast. This splits up the energy resulting in several weaker storm systems versus one large consolidated storm. Think of this setup as producing a bunch of spinning tops. Compared to a train, there is very little weight or force behind these spinning tops making it tough to forecast the details of where showers will hit, when they will occur, and how much rainfall will fall at any given location.

Forecast

Expect showers at times Thursday through Saturday with sunbreaks mixed in between. Best chance for dry weather during these three days will be on Saturday. By Sunday, the jet stream will sort of have its act together and should deliver a slightly stronger cold front to the region.

I see no strong winds, prolonged heavy rain events, arctic blasts, snow, or ice storms on the horizon for us. The next 7 days look pretty calm – just a little wet at times. Maybe a stronger storm next Thursday, but plenty of time for those details later.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Dry until Thursday

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

We had plenty of rain this past week. Salem picked up almost 3 inches of rain just in the first six days of the month, so a break in the rain feels deserved. What’s even better is we have already broken free of the morning fog and low clouds and we are in the midst of a nice sunny Saturday, in November! 🙂 Enjoy! Sunday looks great too, although the fog might last longer on Sunday, but still nice and dry.

MON: Still dry, but cloudier. I could see a few sprinkles or light showers falling in the northern Coast Range and Cascade Range, but the valley should stay dry. A much gloomier day though.

TUE: Morning fog returns and may be slow to burn away. Partly cloudy afternoon. High of 56°.

WED: Partly cloudy. Increasing clouds late in the day. High near 60°.

Lows during the next several days will range from 38 to 43°. Nothing out of the ordinary.

THU: Rain returns. High of 55°.

An easy forecast for the most part. The morning fog is really the only weather related issue that could influence our lives a little between now and Thursday.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!! 🙂

Wild Wednesday weather

On By bryanweatherIn Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

Headlines

  • Steady rain lasts all night long adding up to around half an inch.
  • Winds turn gusty Wednesday – 30 to 40mph.
  • Thunderstorms with stronger gusty winds and very heavy downpours are likely through Wednesday night. An additional half inch or more of rain is possible from these heavy showers.

Details

Sometimes in my forecasts I casually reference weather events from past dates, but then I have to remind myself that most normal people don’t keep such detailed weather records as me lol… Well, this time I’m only asking you to remember back two Saturdays ago which was the day we experienced gusty winds, heavy downpours, a few power outages, and some lightning. I think this Wednesday will be very similar.

Where and exactly when the heaviest showers and thunderstorms hit is impossible to know, but once again I’m relying on this estimated radar image (valid for 2pm) to give us a general idea of what we are looking at. Take a look!

Bright orange and red colors indicate heavy rain, and this clearly shows a good chance for numerous heavy showers/storms across much of western Oregon Wednesday. Storms could cause winds to briefly gust higher than 40mph, dump very intense/heavy rainfall, and even put down some lightning strikes. Watch for ponding on local roadways as well due to clogged drains.

The Coast

Coastal locations even have a slight chance of a funnel cloud or, if it touches ground, a tornado. This is the time of year is when the coast can see some of these weak funnel clouds or tornados. Rare, but they do happen more often in fall here. I’ll bee keeping an eye out for reports from the coast. Of course, this storm is also lining up perfectly with our first round of King Tides for the winter season. This makes it easier for large waves to travel higher up the beaches. Storm watching is a TON of fun here. Just be careful out there! 🙂

The rest of the forecast

Thu: More rain much of the day.

Fri: A few leftover showers.

Sat & Sun: Completely dry.

Mon & Tue: Slight chance for a little rain, but no big storms.

Highs ranging from the mid to upper 50s.

Still no real threat for mountain snow at the pass level this week, so I’m not worried about that affecting your travel plans.

Okay, enjoy the rainy night, and stormy Wednesday!

October 2025

On By bryanweatherIn 2025/2026, Extra!!, Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

Good evening! We cover a lot in this post. Here’s a super short “table of contents” for you:

  1. October 2025 temperature and precipitation stats.
  2. Highlights from October.
  3. Our extended forecast.

October 2025

October 2025 brought to an end a string of 6 months with warmer than average temperatures. We ended pretty darn close to average, but officially 1.1 degrees below normal. This image shows how high temperatures panned out for the month.

A lot of slightly cooler than average days, but nothing super wild. This next graph shows the same data, but does a good job of showing just how close to normal many of those cool days were.

That graph does an excellent job at showing just how dramatically our temperatures drop in October. I like it!

Zooming out to see the big picture, we can see how this October was really warm across much of the country with the west coast and a small corner of the southeast being the exceptions.

This next image shows precipitation per day for Salem for the month of October. In the bottom right corner you will find the total for the month and percentage of normal. Remember you can always click on images for a larger view.

Highlights from the month

October 2025 goes down as a mostly uneventful month. Our coldest low occurred on the 30th with a temperature of 34°. The most interesting weather events took place on the 25th when we saw widespread wind gusts above 40mph (45 in Salem), lightning & thunder, and heavy rain showers. The coastline experienced high surf as well. Nearly a foot of snow fell at the ski resorts the following day.

Our forecast

Mon: Showers in the morning turning into a steady rain during the afternoon. A chilly high of only 53° with around a half an inch or rain. A great day for warm layers and a rain jacket!

Tue: Lots of mid/high level clouds with a few peaks of sunshine. Mainly dry. High of 57°.

Wed – Fri: Frequent periods of rain and breezy too. Wind gusts 30 – 40mph Wednesday and again late Thursday afternoon and evening. Over an inch of rain spread over the course of these three days. Potential for some heavier downpours and maybe another thunderstorm or two Wednesday afternoon.

Sat & Sun: We might finally have a dry weekend (both days)! I mean today was great, but the very first weekend in October is the last time we have seen a totally dry Saturday/Sunday combo. Highs in the upper 50s. Rain appears to make a return next Monday or Tuesday.

Have great first week of November!!

The next nine days

On By bryanweatherIn 2025/2026, Extra!!, Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

Can you believe it’s almost Friday and the end of October? Time to look ahead at the forecast for this weekend (many of you want to know), plus the forecast for next week, and at the very end I have a fun little weather history tidbit for you.

I’ve combed through the weather models searching and searching and I cannot find a single completely dry 24 hour period after Friday through at least the next ten days! Eventually we’ll see dry weather again, it always comes back, but it’s very clear we are entering full on rainy season mode here in western Oregon. We have a lot of rainy, grey, and damp November weather on tap with only very short respites here and there.

Extended forecast

Highlights

Friday: The first half of the evening looks dry . Late evening activities could get rained on. Rain will begin earlier in the evening the further northwest you go. So the Portland metro could see a rainier Halloween evening than Salem. Locations south and east of Salem could easily stay dry well through midnight. If you’re wondering why apps keep on changing their forecasts for this Friday it’s because it just doesn’t get much closer than this. The estimated radar image for 8pm Friday night shows a band of rain just to our northwest. Move that sucker 25 miles closer and we have a very wet evening. See how tricky that is?

Saturday: Wet with rain much of the day.

Sunday: This is it! It could be mostly dry during the daylight hours Sunday, so take advantage of it! 🙂

Mon – Tue: Wet at times, but nothing real wild.

Wednesday: This storm looks a little more impactful with heavier rain likely, and possibly some gusty winds.

Thursday & Friday: It seems like another pretty wet storm system will move in at some point during these two days bringing steady rain and possibly more gusty winds.

Impacts

None of the storms this coming week appear capable of producing really strong winds. Instead plan on typical run of the mill 30 to 40mph gusts. Should this change, then I would of course do my very best to inform you. Right now the biggest issue weather will have on your day to day life (other than getting soaking wet outside) is the likelihood of clogged/backed up drains creating ponding on roadways and in some parking lots. As far as mountain snow goes, well I don’t see very much at all over the next 8 days. These storms will be on the mild side. This means wet and rainy Cascade passes.

Some fun weather facts for you all. I looked back into the history and record books, and I found out that in 1935 it snowed 5 inches officially at the Salem Airport on Halloween making it the earliest snowfall in Salem on record.

As far as the single snowiest day in Salem’s recorded history goes, it appears the record was set in 1937 when 25 inches fell between January 31st and February 1st. There are several documents (journals, weather reports etc.) indicating that up to 33+ inches fell in parts of south Salem in just those two days alone! Check out this photo from downtown Salem after the storm. Keep in mind this all happened after 6 to 12 inches of snow had already fallen during the week prior.

And this next photo was taken on State Street in downtown Salem after the storm.

What would happen if that took place today?!?!? I suppose every winter brings with it new opportunities for something wild to happen, and since Friday marks the earliest snowfall on record here, I figured it’s time to start keeping an eye out for snow…. Or, we could end up with a snowless winter which happens far more often than big snowstorms around here. :/ Time will tell…

Okay, stay safe out there, remind your kids to be respectful and mindful of people, property, and cars when running around from house to house in search of candy (sounds a little weird when you think about it lol), and of course, have fun! 🙂

The rearview mirror

On By bryanweatherIn 2025/2026, Extra!!, Salem Area Forecast, The Mountains and Beyond, WEATHER ALERTSLeave a comment

What an exciting and wild weekend of stormy weather we just had! Numerous thunderstorms popped up Saturday up and down the coastline, and even the valley got in on the action too! A strong line of storms dropped heavy rain, brought gusty winds, and put down multiple lightning strikes Saturday afternoon across much of the mid valley region. I’m borrowing this image from Fox 12 Weather (the best Portland weather team), and it shows really well the vast amount of lightning strikes that occurred Saturday.

For the most part, I’m pleased with how the forecast went: winds were widespread with Salem officially recording a 45mph gust, many of us experienced intense downpours, and thunderstorms were frequent along the coast making for a very stormy fall-like weekend. Rainfall totals ended on the lighter side, but I imagine not too many people noticed that… Below is a map with three day rain totals from Friday through early this morning.

We have two more shots at seeing rainfall over the next seven days, and I’ve listed both of them out for you below:

  1. Tuesday night – early Wednesday morning a few hours of steady rainfall during the middle of the night. So unless you’re on night shift or you’re running packages for Amazon in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, you probably won’t even notice this rain event. The daylight hours on Wednesday look dry.
  2. Saturday. This will be a bigger soaking. Rain begins at some point Saturday morning and continues through the duration of the day. No strong winds or wild thunderstorms this go around, just plain ol’ Oregon rain. Probably looking at a solid half inch. High of 62°.

I think many of you will appreciate the timing of our rainfall with the majority of this week’s rain taking place at night – a far cry from the rain these past few days.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will all stay basically dry during the “regular” daytime hours this week. Fog is likely during the mornings of our dry days, especially with all the ground moisture, longer nights, and cool airmass near the surface. So our dry days might not feature as much sunshine as the dry days we saw last week – something to keep in mind. Highs in the upper 50s to near 60°.

The Cascades

Finally, no snow in the Cascade passes this week. The brief rain events we do have on tap are bringing in warmer air, so snow levels will climb well above the passes. Bare and/or wet roads can be expected up there through at least Sunday.

Have an excellent and safe rest of your week! 🙂