Half an inch of snow is enough, more will hit the lowlands (and the rest of the state) on Tuesday.
Yesterday, some light sleet reached the lowlands as cold air swept south in the area.
Amounts ranged from nothing to about an inch at lower elevations, while more snow in the mountains resulted in a leash requirement at Snoqualmie.
Light snow falls in Northeast Seattle.
Eastern Washington is currently in deep freeze, with temperatures in the single digits and even below zero degrees Celsius, while severe sub-freezing temperatures are spreading across the West (see low temperatures). this morning, below).
Drive carefully: there are many slippery roads out there.
Today will be relatively benign and dry. But tomorrow is a different story.
As cold air blankets the region, a Pacific weather system will approach. You can see the associated clouds on the latest infrared satellite imagery (see below).
Tomorrow morning, a center of low pressure will approach, while air cold enough for snow (blue and purple below) will cover most of the area, with the exception of the Willamette Valley and the coast of Western Australia. Snow will begin to fall last Monday night and last into Tuesday morning.
This isn’t the ideal lowland location for lowland snow on the Puget Sound–you want the lowlands to head south more and suck in cold air from the north as it approaches.
Below is the latest total snowfall forecast from the NOAA NWS HRRR model through 10 a.m. Tuesday. Probably half a foot higher than some locations in Northwest Washington (like Whatcom County) and San Juans, a few inches north of Seattle.
Less than SW Washington, which has low temperatures but lots of mountains (make sure to ski well during the holiday)
These types of boundary temperature situations are difficult and therefore it is useful to consider multiple model solutions. There is still (significant) uncertainty about the exact location of the rain-snow line and the distribution of precipitation.
The UW model snowfall total as of Wednesday at 4 a.m. also includes snow in NW Washington but also rain shadows (snowballs) north of Seattle and more snow south of the Sound). But this is an older run than the NWS HRRR forecast shown below.
.gif)
The Central Europe pattern started more recently (10 p.m. Sunday) and also kept most of the snow north of Seattle. And yes, the total is big in the mountains.
The models all brought fresh snow to the mountains of NE Washington.
Anyway, will keep an eye on the latest solutions, as this forecast is difficult with the southern edge of the snowfall area uncertain. Snow forecasting in Nebraska would be much easier, but it’s much more fun here!
