A closed low drops south off the California Coast on Friday while the main jetstream resides well to our north over Canada. The result will be generally quiescent weather over our region with a warming and drying trend.
The aforementioned closed low combined with the remnants of a frontal boundary maintain mostly cloudy skies across the region Friday morning. There's just enough lift along with light generally S winds in the Mt Hood and possibly Mt Adams area for a few hundredths of an inch of precipitation today, before chances diminish in the afternoon as skies gradually clear across Washington State. Although 5000 ft NWAC stations start the day near or slightly below the freezing mark, expect freezing levels to rise to around 6000-7000' by the afternoon.
Friday night features mostly clear skies and further warming aloft as freezing levels rise to 7000-9500 ft. Saturday will be significantly warmer than normal for mid-April with freezing levels rising to 8500-10000 ft. As the closed low into the great basin, some mid-level clouds and some very light precipitation may rotate back into the Mt Hood area on upper-level E flow.
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 cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning, then becoming partly cloudy with filtered sunshine in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
A few high clouds gradually clearing.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning with a few low clouds and some filtered sunshine in the afternoon. Light ridgeline and W wind at the Pass.
Friday
Night
A few early, then mostly clear skies. Light ridgeline and W wind at the Pass.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning with a few low clouds and some filtered sunshine in the afternoon. Light ridgeline and W wind at the Pass.
Friday
Night
few high clouds gradually clearing. Light ridgeline and W wind at the Pass.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning with a few low clouds and some filtered sunshine in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
A few high clouds quickly transition to mostly clear skies.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning with a few low clouds and some filtered sunshine in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
A few high clouds quickly transition to mostly clear skies.
Friday
Mostly cloudy in the morning with a few low clouds and some filtered sunshine in the afternoon.
Friday
Night
A few high clouds transition to mostly clear skies.
Friday
Mostly cloudy with gradually decreasing chances of very light rain and snow at times. Rising snow levels.
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).