I’ve heard a lot of crazy predictions about what might happen this weekend from friends and colleagues.
“Is it true we could get 4 inches of rain this weekend,” someone asked me?
Uh, no–it’s not.
However, we do have a doozy of a fall storm that’s going to roar through on Saturday. It’s the one to the southwest of Oregon in this image from Friday afternoon August 28, 2015. And it is followed by it’s weaker–and cooler cousin–which you see to the northwest of our coast line on the map.
Weekend Wind For Portland and I-5 Corridor Could Cause Damage
So how strong will the winds be in Portland this weekend? And how much rain will we see from our Saturday storm? These are great questions and here are bullet points of what I expect and do not expect from this storm.
- I expect some of us to see falling trees and many of us should see tree limbs down
- Peak gusts to about 40mph in the I-5 Corridor packs a punch this time of year: trees full of leaves and many trees are weak after our (in some ways) record hot summer
- This means scattered power outages are pretty likely
- Peak Gusts of 55-65mph along the coast and over high parts of the Coast Range. My concern here is for our runners and walkers headed to the beach as part of Hood To Coast and Portland To Coast
- Winds will crank up significantly just before or about sunrise for the Coast Range and Coast, and likely not too long after sunrise for the I-5 Corridor
- Rain: yes, it will be pouring at times and the totals will be impressive for this time of year–maybe .50″ in the Valley and 1.00″ for beach cities.Â
- Much of Saturday will be dry and I expect sun breaks
- There is a slight chance of Saturday morning thunder pretty much anywhere west of the Cascades
The National Weather Service in Portland has issued Warnings and Advisories related to wind.Â
My biggest piece of advice ahead of the storm: if you have anything in the yard that could get carried away by 40mph gusts than you better put it away tonight.
Be safe!
Yes, it certainly was a “doozy”. Usually when a storm hit the west coast, my location is relatively sheltered. I’d say we had peak gusts of at least 50mph- which weren’t the highest speeds in the PNW, but strong enough to be the windiest August day in history here. Lots of leaves, branches down. And today, heavy rain. Hard to believe but this August now will actually end up wetter than normal. Don’t count the month’s rainfall til it’s actually over!