Grand Forks, North Dakota to Corvallis, Oregon

This is an interesting trip to me, one that will cover 3 days and 1,639 miles. We’re hitting a lot of open territory. Big Sky Country, as some have called it. We’ll carry a pace of 65.6mph and break the trip into 524.5 mile segments, with a little extra for day three. Drive fast, the speed limit allows it!

DAY ONE (Saturday)

(May 17, 2006 Grand Forks, ND) Ð Aerial view of Grand Forks mitigation project building new levee walls, burns and pumping stations protecting the city from the Red River. Photo by Brenda Riskey/UND

A surface wave centered over Minnesota is kicking up light rain all throughout Minnesota, encroaching on the Red River. High pressure is going to strengthen and squash the disturbed weather to the southeast. It’s going to be a little chilly, relatively speaking, to start the day, but it should warm quickly in western North Dakota. Eastern Montana will be sunny and warm, and in honor of the drive on Saturday, and the rest of the journey to come, we will stop in Miles City, Montana.

DAY TWO (Sunday)
Eastern Montana is wide open pastures and prairies, and becomes mountainous around Butte and Helena. We’ll run into showers and thunderstorms right here, where the prairies run into the Rocky Mountains. The storms will be widely scattered and may even be dry, and when we start getting to western exposures around Missoula and westward, the threat will significantly lessen. We’ll make it to the Clark Fork River Crossing near Tarkio for the end of the night.

DAY THREE (Monday)
Another shorth wave is moving ashore Sunday night, and some more of those spotty, potentially dry storms in the chimney of Idaho. It’s going to be dry after that in the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, the Gulf of Alaska gyre is reforming, but for the time being, sit’s still hot in the Pacific Northwest

The peak of the heat wave

The Pacific Northwest is had a hot spell at the end of July. Sure, it was not quite as long lasting as the one that came last year, but it was just as hot. Last Friday in Corvallis, hit 99, and was 96 on Saturday. As I said, fortunately, temperatures aren’t still that warm, but they lasted long enough that wild fires really exploded in southern Oregon and northern California. Hopefully, they are more well behaved than in recent years. The forecast in Corvallis was overheated, but a fairly well behaved. The Weather SErvice and WeatherNation drew level on the verification.
Friday – High 99, Low 62
Saturday – High 96, Low 62

Grade: A-C

Corvallis, Oregon

Most of the people that live in Oregon live along in a north-south corridor adjacent to the Cascades. Oregon State is in Corvallis, and the town and the school are well within the corridor.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the historic flooding in the Ohio Valley. St. Louis recently broke a single day record for rainfall, while eastern Kentucky is seeing a rising death toll thanks to flash flooding caused by the deluge. Our thoughts are with those affected by these disasters.

At 656PM, PT, Corvallis was reporting a temperature of 89 degrees with clear skies. Salem and Eugene, on either side of the city, were reporting temperatures of 95 degrees. Of course, along the coast with the Marine layer, temperatures were hovering in the mid 50s with clouds and fog. There was no forecast for that haze to press further ashore.
Flow over the western US is fairly stagnant, with any jet structure only found well to the north, originating in the northern Yukon. As a result, heat has been allowed to build in the Pacific Northwest. While the Gulf of Alaska low was currently absent, a weak wave shifting closer to the shore will bring some cooler air late on Saturday, to be joined by some clouds.
Tomorrow – Hot, High 96, Low 60
Saturday – Partly cloudy, High 95, Low 59

TWC: Tomorrow – Mainly sunny. High 98, Low 61
Saturday – Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 97, Low 61

AW: Tomorrow – Blazing sunshine and hot; possible danger of dehydration and heat stroke while doing strenuous activities High 97, Low 60
Saturday – Blazing sunshine and hot; possible danger of dehydration and heat stroke while doing strenuous activities High 96, Low 61

NWS: Tomorrow – Sunny and hot, High 98, Low 61
Saturday – Sunny and hot, High 97, Low 62

WB: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 97, Low 60
Saturday – Mostly sunny, High 93, Low 61

WN: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 98, Low 61
Saturday – Mostly sunny, High 97, Low 62

FIO: Tomorrow – Humid throughout the day. High 93, Low 65
Saturday – Humid throughout the day. High 93, Low 63

It’s hot, but fortunately, the heat won’t be as intense or as resilient as last year’s heat wave. It is expected to break by the end of the weekend. For now, you can certainly see the clear skies over most of Oregon, but the intrusion of low clouds and fog over the coast is evident as well.