Arctic Airmass: Very Cold Temperatures & Another Slight Chance of Snow

FastCast—Thursday, Feb. 24 to Saturday, Feb. 26:

An Arctic airmass has been impacting Washington state for the past day. Temperatures dropped into the upper teens to low 20s across Western Washington overnight Wednesday. A weak system will move through on Thursday morning, bringing a slight chance of light snow to most of Western Washington. At most, 0.25-0.5” of snow is possible. Mostly sunny conditions will prevail by midday Thursday through Friday evening. Expect highs in the 40s and lows in the mid to upper 20s. By Saturday, temperatures will moderate. Highs will reach the low 50s and lows will be in the mid to upper 30s. An extended period of rain is expected to begin on Saturday.

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With an Arctic airmass over the Pacific Northwest, the 2nd coldest night of the year (besides New Year’s) was Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. Below are low temperatures on Wednesday morning.

Lows reached the upper teens to low 20s in Western Washington, even into the mid to upper 20s on the coast. In Eastern Washington and the Cascades, lows reached -10 to the low teens.

From late Wednesday to Thursday morning, a weak system will move through Western Washington. This system will bring a chance of light snow to parts of the region. The HRRR snow forecast is below.

Light snow is possible across most of the lowlands, with impacts not expected, and no locally higher amounts like what happened on Monday. 

Following this weak system, another cold night is expected. Friday morning’s low temperatures are shown below from the European model.

This will be the last very cold night during this cold snap in Western Washington. Lows will reach the mid to upper 20s in Western Washington and low single digits to low 20s in Eastern Washington and the Cascades.

A wetter and warmer pattern will begin on Saturday. The GFS rain forecast through the end of February (next Monday) is below.

We will likely make up for some of the precipitation deficit that has been the result of a very dry February. Stay tuned as a more active pattern begins this weekend!