It's looking like a beautiful start to the day out in the mountains. While a few isolated showers and some scattered low clouds dot the region, these should quickly dry up and clear out. Expect mostly sunny skies this morning with cool temperatures and generally light winds. High clouds lift northward from Oregon midday. This will result in overcast skies and/or filtered sunshine from near I90 southward by the afternoon.
A weak short wave weather system will start to approach the coast overnight. Clouds and winds will increase ahead of the precipitation. Right as the storm moves inland, it appears to fall apart. Snow should arrive in the mountains around midnight and peak in the very early morning hours. This isn't a big storm, and the precipitation sort of hangs up on the Cascade crest and struggles to make it much further east. Winds could be a bigger story than the snow for many of the common sites like Mission Ridge, Ahtanum Meadows, and Mt Hood.
By Wednesday afternoon, any lingering showers quickly start to taper. A high pressure ridge will build over the Eastern Pacific and shift inland. This will start a more prolonged period of dry weather that should last at least the remainder of the week.
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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Tuesday
Partly cloudy to mostly sunny with isolated showers in the afternoon.
Tuesday
Night
Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated showers. W winds becoming light to moderate.
Tuesday
Cloudy in the morning with a few isolated showers, then clearing.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming cloudy with scattered showers. Winds turning W and becoming light to moderate.
Tuesday
Cloudy in the morning with a few isolated showers, then clearing.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming cloudy with scattered showers. Winds turning W and increasing to light to moderate.
Tuesday
Becoming sunny in the morning, then increasing high clouds.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming cloudy with scattered showers developing after midnight. Winds turning W and increasing to light to moderate.
Tuesday
Clearing low clouds in the morning and becoming mostly sunny. High clouds and filtered sunshine in the afternoon. Light E flow.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming cloudy with showers developing around midnight. Winds turning W and increasing to light to moderate.
Tuesday
Clearing low clouds and a few sprinkles in the morning. Becoming mostly sunny, then increasing high clouds and filtered sunshine. Light E flow.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming cloudy with showers developing after midnight. Winds turning W and increasing to light to moderate.
Tuesday
Becoming mostly sunny with a few passing bands of high clouds.
Tuesday
Night
Increasing clouds. A few sprinkles possible in the very early morning hours. Winds turning W and becoming light to moderate.
Tuesday
Becoming mostly sunny. Then increasing high clouds particularly south of the Wenatchee Mts.
Tuesday
Night
Increasing clouds with a few isolated showers developing near the crest after midnight. Winds turning W and increasing significantly becoming moderate to strong.
Tuesday
Becoming mostly sunny in the morning, then increasing high clouds.
Tuesday
Night
Mostly cloudy. Winds turning W then increasing significantly and becoming moderate.
Tuesday
Mostly sunny, then increasing high clouds.
Tuesday
Night
Becoming mostly cloudy. Winds turning W and increasing significantly, moderate to strong and gusty. Isolated showers after midnight.
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).