After a slippery start to the day, we’re seeing some sunshine and warmer temperatures around the Sound. It is still cold and windy in Whatcom County with wind chills in the single digits and teens, but the wind will be slowly subsiding into early tomorrow.
While we’ll be mainly dry for most of the time around the area into Wednesday morning, we will still have some slippery travel in a few areas early (especially areas that are adjacent to snowmelt), but the scale of icy roads won’t be as great as this morning. There will be a few light snow showers or flurries tonight into the morning, but this will be of little consequence for most of us. There could be a dusting of snow in southwestern parts of Western Washington and nearer the coast.
It will “warm” up into the mid to upper 30s by Wednesday afternoon as another round of wintry weather moves into the area through the day and continuing into Wednesday night.
This next disturbance will produce a mix of rain and snow Wednesday late morning into afternoon, moving from southwest to northeast. As has been the case in recent days, the best chance for snow accumulation will be in higher elevations above 200-300 feet through early Wednesday afternoon. However, any heavier showers through the daytime hours could send some minor snow accumulations to sea level. This does not appear to be as troublesome as what could affect us Wednesday evening and Wednesday night!
On Wednesday evening through Thursday morning, temperatures will fall a bit and most areas will have to potential to see snow, instead of a wintry mix. Accumulations of snow and slush will still be spotty, but this system has the potential to put down 1-3 inches of snow in lowland locations around Puget Sound, with continued emphasis for the highest amounts on higher hills and away from large bodies of water. There could be isolated higher snow totals too.
While the exact location of heavier accumulations won’t be able to be known until closer to when the snow bands or pockets move through, there is some suggestion in forecast models that the central and south Sound could be more favored for this next round. The far northern parts of the area and the Strait appear to have a much lower chance of accumulating snow with this system.
Into Thursday morning, snow showers will be decreasing but could still create issues for the morning commute. By afternoon, precipitation will have mainly ended with some sunshine emerging.
Friday morning will likely be the coldest since last January with morning lows in the upper teens to mid 20s. Friday will be mainly dry with a mix of clouds and sun.
It remains cold enough for snow at night and a rain/snow mix in the daytime through the weekend into next week. There will be the chance for some weak disturbances with moisture to move through from time to time. The first of these could affect the area on Saturday and then another possibly on Monday or Tuesday. Right now, impacts from these systems don’t look all that great but we’ll be monitoring forecast developments.
It will remain very cold through next week with highs mainly in the upper 30s to near 40 in Seattle and morning lows in the 20s. We might come out of the cold sometime around the middle of the month.
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