first frost at last

After two months of rain (10¼" and nearly 13"), December is going dry for a week or more. As I've mentioned our location is wettest in November - but December should still end up at 9.4 inches, so a dry 7-10 days will need to be made up later.

On the other hand, clearer skies and colder nights will finally arrive. We're still awaiting our first frost, though we've been in the mid-30s several times. One of the next few nights should be frosty. That's pretty late for around here, but clearing (or an early arctic airmass) is needed to get us to freezing. I always thought of Halloween as Portland's first chance of frost, so by that measure we're a month behind.

One catch though: fog. 

We were foggy all day here it seems, with a high of about 40°. South of Longview skies were mostly clear where the Columbia Gorge winds scoured things out. I had hoped we would be above the fog but that didn't work today; however the dry week is young! We're showing just under 35° at 8:20, but I am watching the clouds swiftly breeze across the full-ish moon. The photo here is exposed just right for the moon in cloud, so the top part is in the clear!

If the sky seals up we could skip the frost again tonight. Some time in the next few days though, the north or east wind will dry things out enough - and frost will happen.