A strong frontal system blew through the area early this morning with heavy precipitation and strong winds. Snow levels peaked a few hours before sunrise and have cooled into the 2000-2500' across the region. They should stay in this range during the day as snow showers pepper the area all day in strong WNW post-frontal flow, leading to significant additional snowfall. The heaviest totals of a foot or more should be along the Olympics, west slopes of the Cascades and Mt Hood with significant spillover for areas east of the Cascade crest. Extreme westerly winds will impact most areas today, we're likely to see some ridgeline weather stations hit 100mph this afternoon for max gusts.
A new weather disturbance will form offshore and slam into the Columbia River gorge late tonight through Wednesday. We can expect to see more significant snowfall for the south Washington Cascades and the Mt Hood area. Strong to extreme winds will decrease late tonight into tomorrow. Snow levels will dip into the 500-1500' late tonight and tomorrow.
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
Moderate to occasionally heavy rain and snow showers. Extreme winds.
Tuesday
Night
Tuesday
Moderate to occasionally heavy rain and snow showers, likeliy heaviest late morning and afternoon. Strong to extreme 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).