Here’s a quick look at the forecast for the Civil War Football game Thursday. At kickoff time 6:00PM the temperature should be near 40 and winds NE 5-10 mph. The sky condition is the most difficult part. There should be partly cloudy skies at kickoff with increasing clouds and fog as the game progresses. It’s possible the low ceiling weather could already be over Autzen Stadium when the game begins. Bundle up because the temperature will be falling through the 30s before the game is over.

A high pressure ridge that is slowly pushing into the Pacific Northwest will continue protecting us for the next couple of days. The next cold front to bring back the chance of rain will be here on Friday. For now look for dry weather with late night and early morning fog.

For the Willamette Valley : The skies cleared up as far south as Salem Tuesday, but not so with the rest of the southern Willamette Valley. That’s why the temperatures stayed so cool. Just a little bit of sunshine could have warmed us up into the mid and upper 40s which is what I predicted. Today and Thursday look for a mix of clouds and sun after morning fog and clouds (as long as they clear out) high 44-47. Partly cloudy Thursday evening then mostly cloudy with patchy fog at night low near 3o tonight and Thursday night. That means a chilly but dry evening for the Civil War  football game at Autzen Stadium. Mostly cloudy Friday morning then a mix of clouds & sun in the afternoon with a slight chance of rain and partly cloudy at night still a slight chance of rain high near 44-47 low 33-36. Partly cloudy Saturday through Tuesday with a slight chance of showers highs 40-45 through Sunday cooling to near 40 Monday (warming a bit Tuesday) lows near 30 at night Saturday through Tuesday. For the Umpqua Basin the daytime and overnight temperatures will be about the same as the Willamette Valley.  At the coast high temperatures will be in the mid 50s through Friday then back the upper 40s and lows from 35-40 at night.

For the Cascades:  The free air freezing level will be at 7,000′ today and  tonight, up to 8,000′  Thursday,  7,000′ at night. The snow level will fall to 4,000′ Friday, 3,000′ Friday night, 2,500′ Saturday, and 3,000′ Saturday night. Sunday through Tuesday the snow level will remain at about 2,500′ with a slight (20%) chance of snow showers.
Congratulations! We have a winner in this week’s weather quiz. Here is the question again. What was the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States and  when did it occur? The winner, Matt, posted his response on the November 30th  edition of my forecast. The answer he gave is the Galveston, Texas hurricane in September of 1900 which killed at least 6,000 people and possibly as many as 8,000 to 12,000′ people. Not a single building on Galveston Island escaped damage and more than half were swept into the sea. This storm single-handedly made September the deadliest month on the calendar for hurricane-related deaths in the United States. You will also notice that the storm had no name. The practice of giving storms people’s names was introduced by Clement Lindley Wragge, an Anglo-Australian meteorologist at the end of the 19th century. He used female names, the names of politicians who had offended him, and names from history and mythology. Now the choice of names comes through the World Meteorological Organization.