textproduct: Pendleton

DISCUSSION

Radar shows valley rain and mountain snow impacting the region, with most of the current heavier precip located over the Blue Mountains and the Foothills of the Blues. That area of precipitation is expected to move out into the Idaho region as we head into the later morning hours. On the other hand, parts of the Cascades will continue to see periods of light to moderate snow going into Wednesday morning. Snow rates in the Cascades at the time of writing this discussion have temporary lessen, but will increase by the early afternoon. Parts of the Northern Blue Mountains will see another increase of snow rates heading into the late afternoon and will stay more or less consistent across the mountains until Thursday afternoon. We've seen a slight tick up in forecasted snow amounts via the NBM in the latest run tonight but the message still remains fairly the same with several feet still expected in many parts of the Cascades and Northern Blue Mountains.

Conditions will greatly improve going into Friday as a ridge pushes ashore and brings mostly dry conditions with some temporary warmer highs in the low 50s across the Columbia Basin. Despite that, low temperatures across the region will remain below freezing for the most part. This pattern will dominate through early next week, bringing some relief from the unsettled weather in the short term. Winds tonight remain breezy with some locally windy spots reporting 40 plus mph gusts. Not seeing criteria widespread enough to warrant a Wind Advisory, but some populated areas (such as Pasco) recorded 38 mph earlier tonight. Not expecting conditions to get to Wind Advisory level despite the upcoming cold frontal passage today increasing pressure gradient to some degree. Chances are moderate (50 to 70 percent) we'll continue to see breezy to locally windy conditions through today with gusts up to 35-40 mph.

AVIATION...12Z TAFs

Rain showers effecting the sites in the eastern half of the Columbia Basin (PDT/ALW) will continue until just at 12Z, so went ahead and not include them in the initial TAFs since they would be so short lived. Mid level clouds linger around the sites with ALW/PDT/BDN/RDM seeing FEW and SCT levels below 3000 feet currently which could briefly turn into MVFR/IFR decks (5 to 15 percent chance) but not expecting anything long term to warrant a line in a TAF. Winds remain breezy to locally windy across most sites and will see some continuous swings in the wind with fairly light winds re-strengthening into breezier >20 mph gusts.

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

PDT 46 30 43 33 / 30 40 20 20 ALW 45 32 43 35 / 30 70 40 30 PSC 49 30 47 34 / 20 30 10 0 YKM 44 26 45 30 / 30 20 10 0 HRI 49 30 46 33 / 20 30 10 10 ELN 38 23 38 28 / 40 30 20 10 RDM 42 22 39 23 / 60 40 20 0 LGD 41 28 36 31 / 40 70 60 40 GCD 41 26 36 26 / 50 50 40 20 DLS 45 33 45 36 / 80 50 40 20

PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

OR...Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Thursday for ORZ502-509.

WA...Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Thursday for WAZ030-522-523.