Gulfport, Mississippi to Portland, Oregon

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This drive will take 5 days, headed cross country over 2,567miles at a pace of about 67.5mph, and a target of 540 miles a day. If you are like me, perhaps you are wondering “how long would it take to travel from these two ports by sea?” According to my research: Over a month. Let’s take the car!

DAY ONE (Thursday)

Gulfport, Mississippi

Pressure is high across most of the country, which long time readers know, of course, means weather is pretty ok! The first drive of this trip will start with some low clouds, maybe some drizzle in Gulfport, but just a short jaunt inland will bring much cooler temperatures and clearer skies. we’ll make it to Forney on the east side of Dallas after what should be a pretty nice day in the car.

DAY TWO (Friday)
We will continue on our northwesterly voyage through what will probably be our driest and dustiest day. The route will carry us through west Texas and the Panhandles, before coming to an end in Campo, in far southeaster Colorado.

DAY THREE (Saturday)
Westerly flow throughout the Rockies is going to start inducing some surface low pressure on the lee. Jet structure is going to amplify the development of low pressure, and moisture in the southwest will draw into the Rockies. There is definitely a shot at precipitation on Saturday, and I would say it will increase around Fort Collins, and be the most likely at the end of the day, as we unload in Wamsutter, Wyoming.

DAY FOUR (Sunday)
Low pressure will work to consolidate overnight in Canada, and our route will dry out considerably. The precipitation on the west side of Wyoming may briefly be wet snow, so if you want to see that, get going early. Northern Utah and southern Idaho are going to be idyllic. We’ll stop in Meridien on the western side of Boise to conclude our drive.

DAY FIVE (Monday)
Low pressure will be scooting down the Pacific Coast into the Pacific Northwest as we wrap up our last day of travel. The low will bring the rain and low clouds that the Pacific Northwest is famous for, but it will be confined primarily to the area on the west side of the Cascades. The first remote chance of rain will be around Willow Lake, but the first real chances will be in The Dalles. Expect it to be a bit gloomy in Portland on our arrival.

Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

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Ooh boy, need to be careful with my keywords on this one. You haven’t heard about Portland in the news lately, have you?

At 353PM, PT, Portland was reporting a temperature of 78 degrees with clear skies. The Pacific Northwest was enjoying a nice, warm and clear stretch to begin the week, which was allowing temperatures to be warm, though not unbearable.
A jet trough is sliding southeasterly along the British Columbian coast, which may bring about a few more upper level clouds as well as a refreshing ocean flow. Eventually, there will be some clouds and drizzle as a result, but not before our forecast period expires.
Tomorrow – Isolated clouds, High 77, Low 50
Wednesday – Increasingly cloudy and cooler, High 63, Low 52

TWC: Tomorrow – Sunny. High 79, Low 52
Wednesday – Mostly sunny skies. High 64, Low 49

AW: Tomorrow – Sunny, nice and warm High 78, Low 50
Wednesday – Partly sunny and cooler High 64, Low 50

NWS: Tomorrow – Sunny, High 77, Low 53
Wednesday – Mostly sunny, High 63, Low 49

WB: Tomorrow – Sunny. High 77, Low 54
Wednesday – Mostly sunny. High 62, Low 51

WN: Tomorrow – Sunny. High 76, Low 53
Wednesday – Partly sunny with showers. High 62, Low 49

CLI: Tomorrow- Sunny, High 78, Low 54
Wednesday – Partly cloudy High 65, Low 48

Nice weather out there on the West Coast.

Updates 10/5

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12:38AM: We’ve been talking about the tropics a lot lately, because this is the time of year we usually think about the tropics, had a forecast in Gulfport recently, and frankly, I’m going on vacation soon. Anyways, here is a late night reminder: Don’t put much stock in projections that are more than about 5 days out. There has been a potential tropical feature doing the hokey pokey in the models from the Bahamas to the Gulf late next week. (Right now, it has taken its whole self out)

9:12PM: The change from above normal temperatures to something that is a bit closer in line to what we would expect this time of year is from about Houghton, Michigan to Dodge City, Kansas. Demarcated below.

Updates 10/2

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2:36PM It’s been very quiet nationwide, enough so that we have been focusing a lot of attention on a couple of storms in the Atlantic that have been pretty safely at sea. The first inkling of a changing pattern from the heat that has engulfed much of the middle of the country comes from Bismarck.

This will be a pretty decent little area of low pressure in the Dakotas, and will usher in cool air and a more active pattern for the eastern US, which should take us into the middle of October.

Gulfport, Mississippi

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Unlike Davenport, Gulfport IS a port, and that is how it got its name.

At 453PM, Central Time, Gulfport was reporting clear skies and a temperature of 88 degrees. With multiple tropical features in the western Atlantic, the tropical energy was redirected away from the Gulf, and the Gulf Coast was in the midst of a nice, clear stretch of autumn weather.
With nothing driving traffic in the immediate region, eyes turn to Humberto and Imelda, which are going to dance together before merging through the middle of the week. As the pair of storms move off to the Atlantic, a bit of a sea breeze will return, with some afternoon storms coming back on Tuesday.
Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 91, Low 69
Tuesday – Mostly sunny, isolated storms late, High 90, Low 69

TWC: Tomorrow – A mainly sunny sky. High 90, Low 71
Tuesday- Sunshine and some clouds. High 90, Lo 70

AW: Tomorrow – Warm with plenty of sunshine High 91. Low 70
Tuesday – Mostly sunny and remaining warm High 91, Low 70

NWS: Tomorrow – Sunny, High 88, Low 71
Tuesday – Sunny, High 88, Low 71

WB: Tomorrow – Sunny. High 86, Low 72
Tuesday – Sunny.  High 88, Low 71

WN: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 88, Low 71
Tuesday – Mostly sunny, High 88, Low 71

CLI: Tomorrow – Sunny, High 91, Low 71
Tuesday – Sunny, High 89, Low 70

It’s not often that I am on the island with precipitation in the forecast. Also, The Weather Channel got a little bit of a refresh, which is almost as clean as this satellite image.

Pueblo, Colorado to Davenport, Iowa

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Wow. I’m not sure you could find a longer, flatter stretch of west to east driving in the country. We will see a great deal of prairie over the day and a half drive. We’ll cover 953 miles, which will be traversed over at a pace of 70.1mph, which might be the highest I’ve seen. That means day one will be through after 561 miles, or so.

DAY ONE (Sunday)

Pueblo, Colorado

There isn’t much to say for the day on Sunday. High pressure in the center of the country will keep things dry in the Plains, and unseasonably warm. There is going to be a bit of zonal flow across the Rockies, producing showers and overcast for the first stretch along the Front Range, but clear skies the rest of the way, where we will stop in Odessa, Nebraska, near Kearney, for the layover.

DAY TWO (Monday)
It’s going to be a warm day for a late September drive, but otherwise uneventful, aside from maybe traffic and construction in Omaha and Des Moines. The directions should be pretty easy too. I-80 to the destination, and there it is.

Davenport, Iowa