Well, Christmas Eve looks like a beautiful day to enjoy your local mountains here in the Pacific Northwest. A high-pressure ridge over the region will keep everyone sunny today with a few high thin clouds drifting about. Expect strong temperature inversions this morning at trailheads located in the mountain valleys and passes. As you ascend, temperatures could increase remarkably. For areas near and west of the Cascade Crest, warm air should eventually shove out any remaining cold pockets creating mild conditions for late December. Further east, expect colder air to remain staunchly in place keeping temperatures downright chilly. Easterly winds will push some of this cold east-side air over the crest and through the passes. As a result, you'll notice the windiest conditions in these locations.
Clouds will increase overnight as a weak frontal system approaches for Christmas Day. Weather models this morning show slightly more snow than they did yesterday, but this still doesn't appear to be a particularly large system. Look for rain and snow starting around mid-day in most locations, with several showers spilling over the Cascades to locations further east. As the front swings through, most of the shower activity focuses south of Hwy 2 favoring the souther volcanoes from Mt Rainier to Mt Hood. There's still a bit of uncertainty with this weather system, so we may have to wait another 24 hrs to see how much snow we're getting for Christmas.
NOTE: 5000' Temperature table is currently unavailable. We are working to restore this as soon as possible.
Weather Forecast
Olympics
West North
West Central
West South
Stevens Pass
Snoqualmie Pass
East North
East Central
East South
Mt. Hood
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Thursday
Sunny and mild. With high thin clouds in the afternoon.
Thursday
Night
Increasing clouds, becoming thicker and lowering by morning. Strong SSW winds.
Thursday
Sunny and mild. Valley inversions in the morning. Windy.
The NWAC program is administered by the USDA-Forest Service and operates from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Seattle. NWAC services are made possible by important collaboration and support from a wide variety of federal, state and private cooperators.
The 5000’ temperature forecast does not imply a trend over the 12 hr period and only represents the max and min temperatures within a 12 hr period in the zone. The 6-hr snow level forecast, the forecast discussion, and weather forecast sections may add detail regarding temperature trends.
The snow level forecast represents the general snow level over a 6 hr time period. Freezing levels are forecast when precipitation is not expected.
*Easterly or offshore flow is highlighted with an asterisk when we expect relatively cool east winds in the major Cascade Passes. Easterly flow will often lead to temperature inversions and is a key variable for forecasting precipitation type in the Cascade Passes. Strong easterly flow events can affect terrain on a more regional scale.
Ridgeline winds are the average wind speed and direction over a 6 hr time period.
The wind forecast represents an elevation range instead of a single elevation slice. The elevation range overlaps with the near and above treeline elevation bands in the avalanche forecast and differs per zone.
Wind direction indicates the direction the wind originates or comes from on the 16-point compass rose.
Water Equivalent (WE) is the liquid water equivalent of all precipitation types; rain, snow, ice pellets, etc., forecast to the hundredth of an inch at specific locations. To use WE as a proxy for snowfall amounts, start with a snow to water ratio of 10:1 (10 inches of snow = 1 inch WE). Temperatures at or near freezing will generally have a lower ratio (heavy wet snow) and very cold temperatures can have a much higher ratio (dry fluffy snow).