Rain continues Thursday in the Portland/Vancouver area with gusty winds at times, and possible thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening.
The National Weather Service says thunder is likely along the coast Thursday, and the Willamette Valley has a 20% chance of thunder later in the day, but any thunderstorms that do form should be isolated due to excess cloud cover inland.
Portland will certainly see showers much of the day. The high will be about 51 degrees. A breezy south wind will blow at about 15-18 mph with gusts as high as 25-33 mph with the strongest winds across the central Willamette Valley. Gusts as high as 45 mph are possible during brief thunderstorms.
The higher Cascade passes could see several inches of new snow Thursday. Anyone with travel plans across the mountains should be ready for winter driving conditions, slick areas, and slow traffic. On-and-off snow showers are expected to linger through Friday morning.
Portland will see a drop in shower chances on Friday to only about 30%. Skies will be partly sunny, but spotty showers may linger into the afternoon. The high will jump nearly 10 degrees from Thursday’s high to about 60 degrees.
Offshore flow develops later Friday night and should scour out most of the cloud cover from the metro area. Some rural locations may see frost early Saturday morning as temps could dips to near 32 degrees.
But this also means clear skies and warming temps on the weekend. The weather service gives the Willamette Valley from Salem to Portland a 30-50% chance of reaching 65 degrees Saturday afternoon.
Sunday will also be sunny with a high reaching about 64.
The extended forecast shows high probability of sunny, clear days to kick off next week with highs in the mid 60s Monday, and likely near 70 on Tuesday, depending on the timing of a front moving south from Canada.