One last dry day before the pattern finally changes. It's pretty warm out there this morning. Most mid and upper elevation weather stations are reporting temperatures in the low to mid 40s! Inversions and low level easterly flow through the passes continue to bring slightly cooler (but not cold) temperatures to lower elevation sites near and east of the Cascade crest. With plenty of sunshine on tap for Friday, it will feel more like a beautiful spring day than early February. Increasing westerly winds should push pass level fog and low clouds east of the crest out, and allow temperatures to increase. While most locations will see generally light breezes, gustier moderate winds should impact the Olympics and Mt Baker areas.
Overnight conditions remain dry and mostly clear, with clouds entering the area in the wee hours of the morning ahead of our first storm. Precipitation arrives in the Olympics to start the day, and the West North zone soon thereafter. Then things get a little uncertain. Precipitation will spread south and east, but the question is, how fast? Some weather models hold off until the afternoon, while others show significant precipitation for much of the day. While this storm has a slow cooling trend, it starts so warm that it will take a bit for temperatures to cool off. Unfortunately, that means rain and high elevation snow for Saturday. Gusty winds associated with the front also increase throughout the day, peaking in the afternoon, before easing overnight. Even though this might not be the snow dump we've been waiting for, it opens the door for additional storms and colder air later this weekend.
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 with passing high clouds. Gusty light to moderate SW winds.
Friday
Night
Increasing clouds. Precipitation possible in the western Olympics just before daybreak. Gusty moderate SW winds increasing.
Friday
Mostly sunny with passing bands of high clouds. Moderate and gusty SSW winds.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear, clouds increasing in the wee hours of the morning. Moderate to strong and gusty SSW winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny with passing high clouds. SW winds becoming light to moderate.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear, clouds increasing just before sunrise. Gusty SW winds becoming moderate.
Friday
Partly to mostly sunny with high thin clouds.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear, with clouds increasing very late overnight. Light to moderate SW winds.
Friday
Mostly sunny with patchy fog to start the day. Passing high thin clouds. Light E flow turning W.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear with clouds increasing very late in the night. Pass winds becoming E.
Friday
Mostly sunny with low clouds and fog to start the day. Fog decreasing as Pass level winds turn from E to W. Passing bands of high thin clouds. RIdgeline winds becoming gusty, light to moderate.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear. Light E flow developing at Pass level. Gusty ridgeline winds becoming moderate.
Friday
Mostly sunny with patchy valley fog and passing high clouds. WSW winds becoming light to moderate.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear then increasing clouds after midnight. Winds increasing and becoming SW moderate.
Friday
Mostly sunny with patchy fog in the morning and high thin clouds throughout the day. Light to moderate W winds.
Friday
Night
Mostly clear with clouds increasing just before sunrise. WSW increasing significantly mid-day and becoming moderate to strong and gusty.
Friday
Mostly sunny with some patchy fog in the morning and high thin clouds throughout the day. W winds becoming light to moderate.
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).