Hang on to your hats

Here's the time of the year when every grape grower in the Willamette Valley gets nervous.  It's the time of impending weather system change.

Here's the snapshot at 4:30 pm from the NOAA satellite.  This shows the water vapor over the Eastern Pacific ocean.

Note that the big patch of clear high pressure off the Northern CA coast is starting to disintegrate.  If you watch the animated set of images, you can see that the weather systems are still being shunted up to B.C., but weather is starting to encroach, wholesale, on Oregon now.  THIS IS NOT a reason to panic. 

In 2008, we saw this sort of threatening weather pattern sitting around for 3 1/2 weeks before the rains finally came.  We'll certainly get some showers, but the vineyards are ready to take a bit of moisture (leaves pulled out of the fruit zone, last sprays on).   I'll just focus on getting the winery ready to go, and see what happens. It'll be fine.