SEATTLE — Offshore winds will blow through the Cascade gaps tonight into Thursday morning, with wind gusts of 30-50mph for locations like Enumclaw, North Bend, Issaquah, Sammamish as air is drawn toward an area of low pressure out in the Pacific Ocean. Elsewhere, we’ll have pockets where wind gusts will be in the 20-30 mph range late tonight into Thursday morning. Winds will subside toward early afternoon. A Wind Advisory is in effect for eastern parts of the lowlands of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties, the Cascade foothills, and the north coast for these gusty winds.
In the Wind Advisory areas, wind chills early Thursday will dip into the single digits. Elsewhere, wind chills will be in the teens early with morning lows in the 20s. We will not have record lows in the morning as air temperatures will not be as cold.
Attention turns Thursday afternoon and evening to a weather system moving into Oregon late that will bring a warm front northward into the area with a bit of moisture. This front will not serve to increase temperatures enough to prevent precipitation falling Thursday afternoon and evening from being mainly in the form of snow or a rain/snow mix. Dry air in place will initially serve to “eat up” the precipitation, but we’ll have flurries flying in many areas by the Thursday drive home, with a chance for accumulations of an inch or so across Lewis and Thurston counties away from the water. Highs will be in the 30s.
Thursday night and the first half of Friday look to be the main event for snow late this week — and could be the last lowland snow event for a long while (or the winter.) Snow will be heaviest and most persistent Thursday night and Friday across the southern one-third of the area, from about south Pierce County south, as well as along Hood Canal. This is where we’re most likely to see 2-4″ of snow accumulation into Friday (with isolated higher totals.) A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for these locations.
Forecast model data coming in Wednesday night continue to increase chances for snow around Puget Sound, with accumulations possible mainly late Thursday night through about midday Friday before quickly ending. I see the chances now increasing of 1-3 inches of snow for cities like Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett and surrounding areas — though this is not a certainty at this point. We might see advisories for snow expanded to our metro areas if these trends continue. Stay tuned!
Farther north for the north interior through Bellingham, snow accumulations Thursday night and Friday morning should be minimal or none at all, due to very dry air and being too far from the parent weather system to our south.
Friday morning’s commute could be difficult in spots. Pinpoint Alert Days have been declared for Thursday and Friday.
We’ll dry out Friday afternoon and evening for a quiet Valentine’s evening before our next weather system arrives on Saturday. This next round of precipitation will usher in milder air that will end the cold snap for the lowlands. There could be some brief and light rain/snow mix as precipitation starts in the late morning or early afternoon, but as heavier precipitation starts Saturday afternoon or evening, it should be warm enough for just rain in the lowlnads. Snow will be heavier in the mountains Saturday evening through Sunday as rain continues in the lowlands. Up to a foot of snow could fall on the passes by the end of the weekend.
Next week looks rainy in the lowlands with more mountain snow. The longer range outlook for late February calls for a better chance of warmer-than-average temperatures in Western Washington with above average precipitation, meaning that we could well be done with lowland snow chances for a while — and perhaps the season (but we’ll see)!
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