After weeks on end of morning fog, afternoon sun, and below-normal temperatures, the weather pattern around here is finally beginning to change.
This morning’s rain–while very light–is certainly a harbinger of things to come. By next weekend, we will have been pounded with several days of active weather, including moderate- to-heavy rainfall and gusty southerly winds.
Our run at the record for the driest December ever is almost certain to come up short, as steady rains are expected across the metro area about once every 36 hours or so through the 31st. Through yesterday, SeaTac had only received 0.27″ of rain this month–an amount that will likely double by the end of Christmas Day, and triple by Monday night. I’m sure 1978, the king of all dry Decembers, with only 1.37″ of rain the entire month, is breathing easy today!
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| Christmas Day rain will arrive around 9 a.m., according to the UW’s GFS model |
As for the here and now, the rest of Christmas Eve will feature cloudy skies and very mild temperatures. At 11:00 a.m., both SeaTac and Boeing Field were reporting 48 degrees, only two degrees shy of the warmest day we’ve had this month (last Saturday, when the mercury hit 50). With warm marine air continuing to flood into the region today, I’d expect our temperature to rise into the low or even mid-50s by sunset. While we won’t come close to setting any type of record for Christmas Eve, as we did six years ago by topping out at a balmy 62 degrees, today will nonetheless be the warmest day since Thanksgiving weekend.
As for the rain? It’ll arrive during the mid-morning hours tomorrow, peaking around lunchtime, before tapering off to showers during the afternoon. Highs will run much closer to average, with temperatures maxing out around 45 degrees.
We’ll dry out Sunday night and early Monday, before an even stronger storm takes aim at the region Monday afternoon and night. The wind, which has been virtually non-existent this entire month, will also pick up a bit tomorrow and Monday, helping (along with the clouds) to keep our overnight low temperatures in the low 40s.
Some models suggest that the winds could really rev up around here later in the week as a vigorous storm slams into Vancouver Island. This far out, it’s not worth getting too excited about, but it’ll definitely be something to keep an eye on as the week progresses.
Wind or not, one thing’s for certain–the rains will be home for the holidays this year.
