Crazy Spring Weather Around the Western US

FastCast—Wednesday, Apr. 13 to Sunday, Apr. 17:

Winter-like weather continues in Western Washington, with chilly temperatures expected, although showers will decrease. Expect light rain/mountain snow at times through Friday. Temperatures will be noticeably chilly for April. Expect highs in the low to mid 50s, and cold lows in the low to mid 30s. Lows will be near or below freezing on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Conditions will be partly to mostly cloudy. A system will bring rain on Saturday, then temperatures warm to the upper 50s on Sunday. A wetter pattern looks to be in store for next week, with temperatures slightly below normal (better than this week’s substantially below normal temperatures)!

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Continue reading the full blog below!

“Abnormal” is the correct word to describe the recent spring weather across most of the Western and Northern United States in recent days. 

Starting in the Pacific Northwest, SW Washington and NW Oregon were hit with a historic April snowstorm on Monday, leaving traffic chaos, roads closed, and even some downed trees and power outages. Snow totals varied substantially, with a peak of nearly 10-12 inches in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range (West Portland) and in Washington Southern Cascade foothills, including Washougal, seen in the WSDOT camera image below from 7:50 AM Monday.

Vancouver and Ridgefield, WA both received 4-7 inches, and the Portland metropolitan area received 1-3 inches, with even more in Portland’s higher hills.

(Note: A weak system may bring up to 1-3 inches of additional snow to the Portland/Vancouver and SW WA region in the early morning hours on Wednesday)

On Tuesday, residents of parts of the Puget Sound lowlands were surprised with rare April snow flurries, including in parts of the Seattle-Tacoma metro area, seen below in WSDOT’s 38th Street camera in Tacoma (at 2:55 PM).

This snow didn’t amount to much more than a brief accumulation on grassy surfaces.

What is the cause of the overall “winter-like” pattern?

Generally, it is a massive trough over the entire Western US, bringing much colder weather across a wide area. These patterns are also conducive to an open door for weather systems. The trough can be seen below (purple and blue) on the European model.

Because of this trough, weather systems approach the Pacific Northwest from a northwesterly direction, instead of from the S-SW as usual. A different approach direction for the weather systems brings colder air from Canada and Alaska, instead of warmer air from across the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to colder temperatures across the entire Western US (even below 60° in Phoenix on Tuesday morning), this pattern is producing an utterly insane spring blizzard in North Dakota.

The European model below shows snow totals through early Friday in North Dakota.

These are mind-boggling snow totals considering that it is April. The city of Minot will likely receive over 30 inches of snow!

In addition, it will be very windy, as seen in the European model below for winds overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

Winds will gust 45-55 mph in addition to 12-36 inches of snow. This is a full-on blizzard…in spring!

While North Dakota is the spring snow epicenter…take a look at the expanse of the northern tier of the United States that will receive snow in the next few days!

This is the definition of a cold troughing pattern…more like winter than spring!