The weather doesn’t always cooperate when a three-day holiday weekend arrives. People plan for months to secure a great camping spot in the Cascades or along the coast.
This year, the weekend is a mixed bag. Snow is forecast to fall in the higher Cascades and then drop down to the mountain lakes today. Along the coast, showers will prevail.
The storm was centered off the central Oregon Coast near Lincoln City. However, the rotation around the low center gave us rain and showers on Saturday. Today, with any sunbreaks, the daytime heating will generate showers, some of which could be heavy. Maybe a thunderstorm.
On Memorial Day, the showers should end, with skies becoming partly sunny — a good day for weary campers to head home and dry things out. For those of you in town, it’ll be a good day for a barbecue on the deck or patio.
We’ll have warm and sunny weather Tuesday and Wednesday, with highs on Wednesday in the low 80s. Our first 80-degree day this year, it looks like. Are you ready for summer?
As I looked at all the weather charts and maps Saturday, the National Weather Service had a Winter Weather Advisory issued for the Cascade mountains. That is so unusual for late May. The Cascades in Central and Southern Oregon really need the moisture, so a forecast of 12 inches of snow for the Three Sisters mountains was most welcome.
I was expecting a half inch to 1 inch of rain here in Clark County on Saturday and today, especially if the heavy showers develop. May is already well over the average monthly rainfall. Might as well add more to the record book.
As I wrote this column early Saturday afternoon, rainfall in Vancouver totaled 3.5 inches, 1 inch above average. By the time the showers end Monday morning, we’ll have over 4 inches in the rain gauge — a wet month, compared to last May’s 1.04 inches. At this time last year, we were in the 80s, topping out at 88 degrees on the last day of May.
Make the most of the weekend, and we’ll chat on that last day of May.
