Atmospheric River clips area into the weekend

There are some light snow showers in the mountains with still a few spotty areas of rain in the lowlands, though later tonight, we’ll dry things out areawide. Early Friday, there could be some patches of fog in more prone locations like river valleys and the South Sound. Otherwise, expect a mainly cloudy start to Friday except at the coast where rain will be moving in.

An atmospheric river sets up just to our north across Vancouver Island Friday with heavy rain streaming onshore there, clipping the north coast and north interior with heavier rain through the daylight hours Friday. Also, it becomes breezy across the area later in the day but winds could top 40mph around Whidbey Island and the northern waters while wind gusts in the 15-30mph range are likely elsewhere in the late afternoon and evening Friday. Highs will be in the 50s. In the mountains, another few inches of snow could fall before it changes over to all rain Friday night into Saturday.

Saturday will be a blustery and wet day across the area as the weakening atmospheric river sinks south, dousing the whole area with rainfall. It’ll be warmer Saturday as this happens and snow levels will rise. Winds will be in the 15-30mph range Saturday.

Sunday will also be wet but rainfall will be tapering. Highs will be in the 60s.

By the time rainfall ends on Sunday night, the north coast and Olympics and North Cascades will have had 4-6″ of rainfall! Rivers coming out of the north Olympics and North Cascades will spike higher but presently are not expected to reach flood stage. In the lowlands, rainfall totals will wind up in the 1-3″ range across areas north of Everett with 0.50-1.50″ for the rest of the area, including Puget Sound. (Generally, the farther south you are, the less rain you’ll get.)

Next week looks mainly dry with highs in the 50s.

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