Portland metro Thursday weather: One last sunny day before rain arrives

Have any late season produce that's ready for picking? Thursday would be a good day. Rain arrives late Friday and continues through the weekend.
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A good dose of heavy rain is heading toward Portland, but we’ll have at least one more dry day before the moisture starts.

Thursday will be an excellent day to clean out the gutters, check the storm drains, and bring in any late season tomatoes from the garden. Skies will be sunny and warm after a cool start. Some metro locations dropped into the low 40s and upper 30s overnight. Temperatures will quickly rebound under clear skies. The National Weather Service expects we’ll see a high near 75 degrees by the afternoon.

Clouds will move back in overnight as several weak systems move in ahead of the stronger storm front expected by Friday night. Winds will start out southerly and be gusty at times.

Portland could see a shot of light rain early Friday under mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures are expected remain mild ahead of the storm. The high will probably reach near 74 in the metro area and could be as warm as 80 in the southern parts of the Willamette Valley, where skies will be mostly clear.

The main rain event will show up overnight Friday and into Saturday. Winds are likely to increase as the front moves inland during the evening. Forecasters are looking at possible gusts of up to 35 mph in the valleys and up to 50 mph along the coast.

Rain may be heavy at times from about midnight through early morning Saturday. Precipitation amounts may be between 0.5-0.75 inches. Another cold front will follow closely behind the first and continue to bring showers and possible thunderstorms into Saturday afternoon. The high temperature will drop to around 66 degrees and cooler air moves in and stays for the remainder of the weekend.

There’s even a mention of snow levels wrapped in with all the storm news. The highest Cascade elevations could see a dusting as low as 6,000 feet Saturday night through Sunday.

Portland-area showers continue Sunday, with chances of more thunderstorms. The high will be near 61 degrees.

So just how much rain are we talking about? Overall rain totals during the weekend could add up to as much as 2 inches in some locations. The coast and the Cascades could see as much as 3 inches of accumulated rainfall.

Extended forecasts show rain showers continue into early next week.

Here’s a look at when heavier fall rainstorms normally begin in the Portland area:

Graph courtesy of NOAA Portland office

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