Well, the weather gods are on the rescue. Heavy rain is falling throughout the region, except for a small area of rain around Seattle.
The totals so far are impressive, with several rain gauges measuring 4-5 inches on the western slopes of the mountains (see below). But less than a tenth of an inch on the Kitsap Peninsula. Mama Mia! It’s rain chalk.
The freezing level is currently around 10,000 ft and the snow level is around 9000 ft.
A strong cold snap will move into early Saturday, bringing much colder air into the area and snow will return on all the passes. Be careful if you plan to travel across the sea.
But true cold air and the possibility of lowland snow won’t happen until Monday, when a lowland center will move south to the central/southern WA coast and arctic air will pushed south BC. (see chart of sea level pressure and latest lows for 10 a.m. Monday). Every place is blue, it’s cold enough to have snow. The white areas may have snow. Purple is VERY cold.
Strong, cold northeasterly winds will spill out of the Fraser River Valley to Bellingham, across the San Juans, and then into the Olympics late Sunday and Monday. These people will see some snowflakes.
Let’s take a look at some of the latest snow forecasts (total forecast from this morning at 5am to 4pm on Monday). The Central Europe model has lots of snow (up to 4 feet) on the Cascades and a light stretch of snow from Bellingham to the Olympics. Snow levels are very low. But little near Puget Sound.
The higher-resolution University of Washington model also had snow over Northwest Washington, as well as snow at low altitudes east of the Olympics and even in higher terrain north of Seattle. Lots of snow over northeast Washington.
Any snowfall in the lowlands is unusual for the first week of November. More details in my podcast, which details some of the challenges facing snow forecasting in our area.
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