A chill in the air; a fresh, crisp scent amongst the trees and a good deal of fog. And they’re all happening in time for the changing of the seasons in Grays Harbor County.
Saturday is the date of the northern hemisphere’s fall equinox, which means there’ll be as much light as there will be darkness. The start of fall also means a dreaded precipitation term for Grays Harbor residents.
Rain.
Don’t blame the messenger. It’s just that time of year.
The wet weather will start lighter but then get heavier near the end of the weekend, according to Dev McMillian, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Seattle. The temperatures are also changing.
“Fall equinox is coming up and it’s sort of been feeling like the fall here the past few days,” McMillian said. “It’s been sort of chilly. The temperatures we’ve been experiencing across Western Washington have been sort of on-par with what we see in the first week of October, so it’s right on schedule for the most part. Locally in Grays Harbor, the first day of fall will be met by rain. We have sort of a weak cold front on tap in the area Saturday. It’ll bring some light rain and showers Saturday night before it briefly dries out. Things will get more active on Sunday.”
McMillian said it “looked like” one quarter to half-inch of precipitation throughout the weekend for Grays Harbor. And then the weather should begin to ramp up Sunday night.
“Once we get to Monday, that’s when moderate to possibly even heavy rain will fall at times when we get Sunday night into Monday, for sure, across a bunch of your area.”
According to NWS, there is an 80% chance of rain on Saturday and Saturday night. And then through Wednesday, rain is forecast. As of Thursday afternoon, the forecast said there was a possible thunderstorm on Tuesday. The temperatures, according to NWS will hover between the low-60s for a high and the low-50s.
El Niño
Some good news is the temperatures should stay between the mid-60s to near 70s for much of the weekend before the weather cools down to the low-60s.
As far as a variation in weather from the east side of the county to the Pacific coast, the east county residents will see warmer temperatures — in the 70s —compared to the bit cooler weather on the shores, which isn’t a surprise either.
Looking ahead at the long-term forecast, Grays Harbor County residents could see an El Niño fall and winter.
“The cloud predictions in the forecast showed El Niño through much of the winter,” said McMillian. “With El Niño weather patterns we tend to be drier than normal across the area here. Of course it may not seem that way as we go into next week. But once things pan out in the next month or two or few months, we’ll see how that weather pattern devolves. Typically with El Niños we’re typically drier than normal across our neck of the woods as far as the winter season goes.”
Remember, weather can change from day-to-day or week-to-week, but “if all goes to according to plan or as expected,” it should be drier.
While McMillian couldn’t recall the last day Grays Harbor County has had a “prolonged rain fall event” in the area, he said it’s definitely been a few months since the last one.
As far as fog goes, McMillian said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if there were more patches of fog throughout the area. On Thursday, in Aberdeen, it looked like a field of fog in the sky as it hovered along the tops of trees and the roofs of the city’s buildings.
With the changes in weather, and increased precipitation, McMillian had a few tips. One of those was for homeowners and one was for drivers.
“You definitely want to keep those gutters clean for sure, especially as we start getting more moderate to heavy rainfall in the forecast,” McMillian said. “And when out and about on the roads, make sure to allow space between you and the car in front of you. Try to take it easier and drive slower than normal.”
As far as who or what to blame for the dreaded drops of water, blame the Pacific Ocean, specifically an atmospheric river.
“An atmospheric river is a long stretch of moisture than can span for thousands of miles obviously,” McMillian said. “It’s a producer of typically moderate to heavy rainfall.”
And for people planning a weekend trip to the big cities, such as Olympia or Seattle, there should be similar conditions, which means this could be the last dry, or drier weekend of the year.
“It looks like there could be some lingering showers from a front that’ll enter on Saturday. It could linger a bit into the day on Sunday,” McMillian said. “The more widespread, prolonged rainfall event will sort of enter the interior about Monday night.”
Among all the foliage at Westport Winery Garden Resort was this fiberglass sunset sculpture by Aberdeen artist Lindell Stacy-Horton. The sculpture, named “Red Sky at Night,” is near the start of the exterior grounds at the resort. For people who like watching the foliage change colors as summer turns to fall, it’s about 10 miles southwest of downtown Aberdeen — 1 S. Arbor Road, in Aberdeen, on the way to Westport. (Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World)
