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We got down to 20° this morning, breaking the previous morning’s record low of 21°. We’ll continue to see sunshine for the rest of the day with increasing east wind, especially in the foothills.
This afternoon, offshore wind will pick up a bit. There is a Wind Advisory for the Cascade Foothills starting tonight at 7 p.m. until tomorrow at noon, for east wind around 15-30 mph with gusts around 40-50 mph. That offshore wind will linger into tomorrow, with cold dry air continuing to push in, which will play a big role as our next weather make comes in tomorrow afternoon and evening.
High clouds start to increase late in the day ahead of a weather system that will be impacting Oregon and the southern part of Washington on Thursday afternoon and evening, lingering into Friday morning. Around Western Washington, very dry air will be in place as precipitation falls on Thursday afternoon and evening. Still, we could have some minor accumulation of dry snow across Lewis and southern Pierce and Thurston counties. There could also be minor accumulation or some dusting around Hood Canal on Thursday night.
Much of the rest of the area could see flurries Thursday afternoon and Thursday night, but right now, it doesn’t look like a significant impact for the area. Friday morning, we will still have some light snow mainly across the southern one-third of the area but it will be moving out by mid-morning. I’ve seen some computer models put totals around a dusting to an inch, and I’ve seen some models put at least a couple of inches. We’ll be refining the forecast for this system as it gets closer, but it appears from all data points that the biggest impact from this weather system will be south of our viewing area. Trace-2″ from Tacoma south to trace-1″ around Seattle sounds about right.
On Friday night, we’ll be mainly dry but another weather system moves in during the day Saturday. Depending on the timing of the onset of moisture, we could have a few inches of wet snow or a rain/snow mix in the lowlands before we transition to all rain in the lowlands with snow levels quickly rising back to the mountains. Pass travel could be difficult at times with snow late Saturday through Sunday.
From Saturday night into next week in the lowlands, temperatures will moderate with highs Sunday and Monday approaching the average of 50 degrees in Seattle with rain. There is the potential for heavy rain at times late in the weekend into early next week with heavy mountain snow, but we’ll fine-tune the forecast timing as we get closer. But all signs point to this nearly month-long stretch of colder-than-average temperatures coming to an end and a return to milder weather for the second half of February.
– Nick Allard, KIRO 7 Meteorologist