Take advantage of the start of your Tuesday

Detailed information for Tuesday, January 5, 2021

by: Joseph Dames

Posted: Jan 5, 2021 / 05:30 AM PST / Updated: Jan 5, 2021 / 02:11 AM PST

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Here we go again, another strip of moisture moving in our direction. We should start the day dry, unlike Monday, with rain coming later in the day. We will call it one of those 50/50 days with dry time in the morning and rain likely after 4 PM.

Thinking about that nearby hike you wanted to go on, do it early and you should be good.

The transportation of moisture is locked on and we should get a good amount of rain out of this event Tuesday into Wednesday. If you look at the precipitable water graphic below, it will give a good idea of the source of moisture moving our way.

We won’t have impressive totals by late Tuesday, but as of 10 p.m., .50-.75 of an inch is possible for the northern Oregon coast. We will probably be closer to .10-.25 of an inch in the Willamette Valley. Those totals will increase overnight into Wednesday morning.

You can tell that the heavy moisture on Tuesday is going to be targeted to the Olympic Peninsula, with some more rain for the Hoh Rain Forest.

Early Tuesday morning we have a transient ridge, which will promote the dry conditions. That breaks down by late in the day as the trough moves in. You can see the hill on the weather pattern graphic below, which is a sign of that ridge and a deep low out there in the Gulf of Alaska, which you can spot in that area of purple.

That isn’t going to directly impact us, but we have plenty of warm moist winter air streaming in to the southwest as we saw above.

This final graphic is a good source to look at temperature but also the wind. The pressure is increasing for the coast as our next system moves in Tuesday night, so the wind is going to be moving a bit more for the coast. Additionally less friction and more to open air to cruise.

Expect the wind to get going on Tuesday afternoon with a southerly wind around 20-25 mph. Temperatures are going to be in the upper 40s. For the valley, temperatures in the upper 40s to lower 50s once again. The wind is going to be coming out the south, southeast, around 5 to 15 mph. The Columbia Basin is going to be cranking a bit up there in Washington.

There is still no signs of real cold winter air moving in. It’ll be more of a rain jacket week over a winter jacket week. Stay dry!

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