Mountain Weather Forecast

Weather Synopsis

It's a lovely spring day across the forecast region. Generally high thin clouds are keeping skies from turning full "blue bird" this afternoon, but there's still plenty of sunshine to go around. A few showers are starting to build along the Columbia River. As the afternoon progresses, we could see a few more convective showers pop up around the forecast region, but it's hard to say exactly where. Even as the upper air dynamics change slightly, these conditions will get stuck on repeat for the next several days. 

A cut-off low pressure system is slowly meandering its way down the Pacific coast Saturday afternoon. Eventually, it should stall off the coast of central California. As this happens, a high pressure ridge from the northern Pacific nudges into our region, setting up a generally stable weather pattern (Rex Block). This feature seems to stay with us through most of the week, bringing warm temperatures, generally light wind, and plenty of sunshine. For Sunday and Monday, we'll still have a slight (but not zero) chance of  afternoon/evening showers or thunderstorms. 

Throughout this period, expect nighttime lows to remain well above freezing. High thin clouds will provide hazy skies with passing bands of filtered sunshine, but these wispy clouds won't do much to hinder the sun's power. Expect 5000ft temperatures to climb into the 60s across the region each day, with valley highs easily reaching into the 70s, and few sites nipping at the 80F mark. Low level flow shifts from E to W on Sunday, increasing RH values slightly. This, combined with a moderately unstable atmosphere, should help a few puffy cumulus clouds to build on Sunday and Monday afternoons. It also leaves the door open for a few showers or thunderstorms. While most locations won't see meaningful precipitation, nearly all mountain areas have a chance of showers/thunderstorms each day. Keep an eye on the sky. If the clouds start to build and darken, a thunderstorm could be heading your way.