We're in for another dry day as an upper level ridge moves over the area. A weak N-S oriented front well offshore will shift toward our area but will do little more than spread increasing high clouds into our region this afternoon and Friday night. After a cold and clear start to the day, look for increasing high clouds by mid-day and eventually overcast skies for the Olympics during Friday afternoon, and early evening for the Cascades. Afternoon highs and maximum freezing levels should be a notch higher than Thursday. A local moderate E-SE breeze will continue for Snoqualmie Pass, White Pass, and Crystal Mt and along the east-central Cascades this morning, and should become slightly weaker in the afternoon. Southerly winds will pick up ahead of this front for the Mt Baker area and over on the Olympics.
The aforementioned weather disturbance will bring clouds overnight but no precipitation. Cloud cover and a milder air mass will help keep overnight lows from dipping down as low as they for much of this week. We should see a transition to mostly sunny skies Saturday morning through early afternoon. An upper level trough approaching the coast will spread high clouds toward our region once again late Saturday afternoon. Freezing levels and afternoon temperatures will take another bump upwards on Saturday.
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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Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with occasional high clouds, then mostly cloudy with increasing high clouds in the afternoon. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with a few high clouds becoming partly sunny with filtered sunshine late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with a few high clouds becoming partly sunny with filtered sunshine late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy.
Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with a few high clouds becoming partly sunny with filtered sunshine late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds.Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with a few high clouds becoming partly sunny with filtered sunshine late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds. Light to moderate E-SE Pass level and ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Light E-SE Pass level and ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny in the morning with a few high clouds becoming partly sunny with filtered sunshine late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds. Light to moderate E-SE Pass level and ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Light to moderate E-SE Pass level and ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny. Increasing high clouds late in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
Cloudy.
Friday
Mostly sunny. Increasing high clouds late in the afternoon. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Night
Cloudy. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny. Increasing high clouds late in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
Cloudy
Friday
Mostly sunny becoming partly sunny late in the afternoon with increasing high clouds. Locally moderate SE ridgeline winds.
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).