Portland hit 72 degrees Monday and if you think that’s as warm as it gets, just wait until Tuesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service gives the Portland/Vancouver area a 70-95% chance of maximum temperatures reaching well into the 70s Tuesday. In fact, locations from Longview/Kelso through Portland and down in the Willamette Valley will all be 10-15 degrees warmer than an average early April day on Tuesday.
Portland’s official forecast high is 75. That’s warm, but not a record as the current record is 79 degrees set in 1992.
For those who believe that’s too warm, too soon, by Tuesday evening the weather makes a significant shift thanks to a strong cold front dropping south along the coast from British Columbia. This will shift the metro area from warm and sunny to cold and damp. Rain is expected to start around midnight Tuesday and carry into Wednesday morning.
Portland will have showers all day Wednesday and the daytime high temp will drop more than 20 degrees from Tuesday’s high to about 52.
This system will also sink snow levels to about 1,500-2,500 during the day Wednesday and as low as 1,000 feet early Thursday. The weather service says snow levels may even drop to about 500 feet for a brief period early Thursday morning, but with the light showery nature of precipitation at that time, and the warm ground left from earlier in the week, it’s highly unlikely any low elevation areas will see any snow.
That’s not the case in the Cascades where even with only showery precipitation, the pass roads are likely to see 1-4 inches of snowfall daily from Wednesday through Friday. If you’re planning to cross the mountains this week expect snow on the roads at times and slick conditions.
Portland will see showers during the morning hours Thursday, and then just mostly cloudy skies through the afternoon. The high will reach about 51 degrees.
Current forecasts show Friday as a mostly damp day with a few scattered showers and some sun breaks. Highs may warm a few degrees to about 55.
The extended forecast has high confidence in a continued wet and cool pattern going into the weekend. Both days have chances of showers and should see highs in the upper 50s.