Winds are already increasing this morning across the region with the Medford Airport reporting sustained winds at 33 mph with a gust to 46 as of 5:45 this morning. The crazy thing is this is just the start of the event as winds will increase throughout the day and into early Thursday morning, as the low bottoms out and approaches the Oregon coastline. Rain will become heavier as we go into the afternoon and late evening hours especially for the western interior valleys. Gold Beach is reporting 1.53 of rainfall in the last 24 hours. As I mentioned yesterday winds will be very strong along the coast with Hurricane Force gusts to as high as 90-100 mph at the headlands and even 60 mph gusts in the southern end of the Rogue Valley. Late tonight into early tomorrow morning the center of circulation of the low will approach the southern Oregon coast. The Wind Warnings for Jackson County have been extended into the afternoon on Thursday to account for this sudden increase in winds across the region. Winds will reach damaging levels especially at the coast, but the Rogue and Shasta Valleys will also see damaging wind gusts. Rainfall will be very heavy for all locations but the coast will see totals in excess of 8 in some of the coastal ranges. Western Siskiyou County will also see very heavy rainfall on burned areas with 2-5 of rain possible in these locations. A Flash Flood Watch is in place to cover this concern of debris flows due to excessive runoff on unstable soils. Snow levels will remain high through much of this event climbing to around 7,000 feet. By Thursday evening into Friday morning they will drop to 5,000 feet. With the colder core and instability aloft there is a slight chance of thunderstorms especially for the coastal zones on Thursday. These isolated cells will spread into the interior valleys late in the afternoon on Thursday. A weak ridge will rebuild into Friday and a portion of the weekend. By late Sunday into Monday the ridge will break down and the active weather pattern will reemerge. This is also around the time that snow levels will drop and will begin to see the valuable snow pack rebuild. Stay tuned for more information on this evolving pattern.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:20:14 +0000
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