Mountain Weather Forecast

Weather Synopsis

It's a beautiful and warm April afternoon with widespread 50s and 60s found throughout the mountains this afternoon. The warm and dry weather continues thanks to a quasi-stationary upper level ridge that's been parked over the west coast of North America much of the week. There will be a few subtle changes this week as the ridge becomes squeezed between two upper level features. The first is a shortwave trough passing south through the Canadian Rockies tonight. This will glance our area, dragging some slightly cooler air primarily into the Northeast Cascades, a few mid-level clouds, and help kick up ridgeline and alpine N-E winds tonight. The strongest winds will likely occur over the Wenatchee mountains tonight. 

The second feature will be a very weak frontal system offshore that runs into the ridge tomorrow. This should spread increasing high and mid clouds over the Olympics and Mt Hood areas late Monday afternoon. This may increase the lower level RH enough to help some afternoon cumulus develop over the Cascades tomorrow afternoon.  Lower and mid-mountain temperatures will remain warm with highs only a few degrees cooler than Sunday. The freezing level will drop noticeably at upper elevations and sit in the 7000-8000' range through mid-week. 

The ridge will weaken but remain intact as the frontal system becomes an open low and slides SE into Oregon/California Monday night. Freezing levels will be steady but there's more uncertainty around the cloud forecast for Tuesday. The best guess is that mid-level moisture increases on Tuesday leading to an increase in afternoon cumulus buildup. 

Spring Schedule: The 7 am Mountain Weather Forecast is finished for the 2020-2021 season. The 230 pm Mountain Weather Forecast will continue daily through Sunday, May 2nd. Thanks for a great La Nina season!