Unseasonably Cold Weather This Weekend

2020 has been a year of strange weather. As we roll in to March, that will continue. This week has already featured a monthly low of 27 degrees. For the rest of the week, rain, sun, and snow are possible. Let's take a look at the details, especially that chance of snow :)

A system moves through on Wednesday, then we will have a dry day for most of Thursday. After that, it gets interesting. This graphic from NWS Seattle shows expected weather impacts for these next couple days. Gusty east winds will be prevalent from Friday through Sunday, with winds gusting 15-35 mph in our area. 

As we move in to the night on Thursday, cold air will be moving slowly south. This model from the UW shows the cold air just north of Washington on Friday afternoon. 



This cold air is the white, blue, and purple colors on the map. This air will sag south in to Western Washington by Saturday. Temperatures will struggle to reach 50 during the day, and at night we will see low temperatures between 25 and 32 degrees. That is unseasonably cold for March. 

Because of this cold air, and some left over precipitation from the days before, there is a chance of snow from Friday night through Saturday. Here is the UW WRF model, which shows 0.7-1 inches of snow. 



The Canadian (GEM) model is more ambitious, showing up to 2 inches of snow through late Saturday. Take a look...

As always in Washington, this is only a *CHANCE*...so we will have to see how this situation changes as the week moves forward. 

The cold weather will intensify as we get later in to the weekend, and temperatures on this UW model for Sunday morning shows temperatures 20-25 degrees for Western Washington and 15-20 degrees in Eastern Washington. 



This will be a significant problem to anyone who has plants or crops planted already. Saturday and Sunday nights will be the coldest, in the 20s for nearly all of Western Washington.