A pause to the rain on the first day of May, Portland area prepares for more

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The first day of May brings warmer and drier skies back to the Portland-Vancouver area on Wednesday.

A few sun breaks will help temperatures warm into the low 60s Wednesday, but this stint of dry weather is short-lived. Clouds will start to increase during the afternoon hours as rain approaches. Wednesday evening's wet weather will continue through Thursday morning.

Rain accumulation will be near a quarter to a half inch from the coast to the valley through Thursday. The greatest amounts will be found along the southern Willamette Valley as showers move from the southwest to the northeast.

Snow showers will ramp up once again over the mountains. Snow elevations will drop to nearly 3,000 ft. Mountain passes travel will likely be slick in spots through the end of the week.

Temperatures will dry and warm close to the average of 66 degrees for the start of May, but will likely come short of that goal. The trend of wetter weather will keep temperatures nearly 10 degrees cooler than average through the weekend and into the start of next week.