Weekend to Bring Lowland Rain & Snow at Passes

 FastCast—Thursday, Oct. 7 to Tuesday, Oct. 12:

Thursday brought partly-mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-upper 50s. A similar day is expected on Friday, with highs in the upper 50s. Clouds move in on Saturday, with rain & potentially breezy conditions arriving later in the day. Showers continue through Sunday, totaling 0.25-0.4”. A couple inches of snow are possible above ~3,000 feet over the weekend. Cooler air arrives to start next week, with lows forecast to drop into the mid-upper 30s by Tuesday morning.

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Thursday morning was one of the coldest of the season, with widespread lows in the low 40s, with the outlying areas reaching the upper 30s. Thursday’s morning lows are below.

Some areas south of Olympia and south of Graham dipped into the mid 30s, and locations in the mountains even dropped below freezing.

Let’s take a look at the forecast. The Weather Underground forecast for Federal Way is below.

Expect Friday to be similar to Thursday, with partly cloudy conditions and highs in the upper 50s. Clouds move in on Saturday, with showers beginning midday. Showers will continue through Sunday. Drier and cooler weather, with lows in the mid 30s to low 40s, arrives to start next week.

Below is the UW rain forecast through Sunday evening.

Puget Sound will be in the rain shadow, but expect 0.1-0.3 inches total. More rain is possible from Seattle northward (0.3-0.75”) and in the mountains (1-3 inches).

Breezy conditions with winds gusting 25-35 mph are possible on Sunday. Higher gusts (up to 45 mph) are possible north of Everett, mainly near the water. 

To top it off, with generally colder air moving in, the snow level will drop to 3,000-4,000 feet over the weekend. This will bring some snow accumulations to the mountains, as seen in the UW snow forecast below (first of the season in the blog).

Forecasts show anywhere from 0.5 to 4 inches of snow around the passes, and up to a foot on the higher peaks.

It has been a fast transition to fall, and La Niña is showing itself with below average temperatures and cooler weather.