A frontal system will continue to weaken over the area today peppering us with light rain and high elevation snow scattered showers. Snow levels will slowly lower during the day, ending up around 5000' by sunset for most areas. A trailing upper level trough will lift NE over the Cascades tonight, keeping light scattered showers in the forecast. The general slow cooling trend will continue overnight and we can expect snow levels to dip into the 3500-4000' range by Sunday morning. Strong SE ridgeline winds subsided overnight and while we'll see a few hours of moderate W-SW winds this afternoon or evening, winds are on the whole much lighter than Friday.
The trough will be slow to exit and we can expect low clouds and isolated showers for the north Cascades to linger through Sunday morning while areas further south start to clear. Sunday afternoon should be mostly sunny albeit some low clouds that hang near the Cascade Passes and north Cascades. Winds will light and freezing levels will rise into the 4000-4500' range.
Weather Forecast
Olympics
West North
West Central
West South
Stevens Pass
Snoqualmie Pass
East North
East Central
East South
Mt. Hood
Use dropdown to select your zone
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline winds easing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Mostly cloudy with isolated light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline winds easing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline winds developing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline winds developing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline W winds developing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline W winds developing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Saturday
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers. Periods of moderate ridgeline winds.
Saturday
Cloudy with occasional light rain and snow showers. Moderate ridgeline winds developing in the afternoon.
Saturday
Night
Cloudy with scattered light rain and snow showers. Periods of moderate 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).