System Early Friday, Calm Weekend, and Colder Next Week

An update on the upcoming cold weather and potential lowland snow will be posted Sunday evening.

FastCast—Friday, Feb. 10 to Monday, Feb. 13:

A fast-moving system will bring 0.1-0.4 inches of rain to the lowlands from late Thursday through early Friday, except 0.6-1.2 inches on the North Coast. Since this is a quick system, the passes won’t get too much snow. Generally, expect 1-3 inches at Snoqualmie and 3-6 inches at Stevens. A calm weekend is in store, with partly to mostly cloudy (and dry) conditions. The next system will arrive late Sunday through Monday, but with colder air in the region, there is some uncertainty as to what will actually happen and how strong the system will be. Through Monday, expect highs in the upper 40s to low 50s, (except in the mid 40s on Monday), and lows in the low to mid 30s.

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Continue reading the full blog below!

A fast-moving system is moving onshore Thursday night. It will bring a quick round of rain and mountain snow from late Thursday through early Friday, before conditions calm down for the rest of Friday and the weekend. 

Below is the European model forecast for precipitation through Friday night.

Expect 0.1-0.4 inches across the lowlands, and 0.5-1.2 inches for the Northern WA Coast. Notice that with weaker systems, the Cascades cast a huge rain shadow over Eastern Washington, where no rain is expected at all.

Since this system is on the fast side, mountain snow will be brief. Take a look at the European model forecast for snow through 10 PM Friday.

Expect 1-3 inches of snow at Snoqualmie Pass and 3-6 inches at Stevens Pass. 

After this system moves by, expect partly to mostly cloudy conditions from midday Friday through Sunday, with highs topping out in the upper 40s.

Things get more interesting next week, with colder air in the region, as seen on the European model forecast below, showing temperatures at 5,000 feet next Tuesday.

The Pacific Northwest is in the red box, and you can see that some colder air from the Arctic will be pushing south toward BC and the Northwest.

The NWS Climate Prediction Center forecast for February 15-19 shows a decent probability of colder than average temperatures across the Northwest.

This forecast shows a 50-70% probability of below average temperatures for Washington state late next week.

As of now, it’s relatively certain that there will be decent mountain snow and colder temperatures at times in the lowlands. Some forecasts show brief light lowland snow, but that is far too uncertain at this time, so stay tuned to future blogs.