Cold air and gusty winds swept southward into Washington State, with light snow falling over Northwest and Northeast Washington last night.
Snow was observed at Sequim Valley Airport northeast of the Olympics.
Total snowfall, available from the collaborative CoCorahs network, shows about 1/2 inch over parts of the San Juans and 1-5 inches from Port Angeles to Sequim. There were some riots in Seattle last night.
Cold winds are blowing out of the Fraser River valley this morning, with winds in Bellingham at 35 mph (see below, black numbers for temperature, red for gust speed) . This cold and dry air current is bisecting around the Olympics and creating northerly winds blowing across the Puget Sound and extreme winter winds across the strait.
As the flow of the Fraser River is forced up by the Olympic, a band of rain (snow) is visible on the radar (see example around 7am this morning)
And don’t forget eastern WA, with chilly northerly winds, 25 mph, pushing south away from BC through the Okanagon valley (see below)
This cold wave is quite a shock to the system.
It was less than a month ago (October 18) when we were close to hitting 90F (see chart). Over the past few days, our maximum temperatures have barely reached the normal lows.
Over the past week, we have collected a lot of snow and ice, with the current total being higher than normal.
For illustration, here is the final image from the USDA snotel website.
OH. The Olympics are more than 2000% normal and the Cascades 300 to 1000% normal.
Snow Paradise. By the way, the streams are usually almost normal.
The next few days will be cool, often sunny and dry as the high pressure moves in.
We need rest.
