The rain shadow is gone.
After protecting Seattle from the wet stuff all day Tuesday—we received a meager 0.03” in the rain bucket—the rain-free zone created by dry air flowing down the Olympics retreated to its normal home earlier today. As a result, Sea-Tac Airport received a healthy 0.34” of rain in three hours—ten times what fell yesterday. Makes you wonder how wet it could have been around here had we not been rain-shadowed for 95 percent of yesterday/today’s system…
In any case, the rain is no more for tonight and tomorrow. The partly sunny skies of this afternoon will translate into partly starry skies tonight, as the clouds and moisture associated with this morning’s cold front clear out. Temperatures will fall into the upper 30s to lower 40s once the sun sets, rebounding back to the 50-degree mark tomorrow afternoon under a mix of clouds and sunshine.
The clouds will thicken once again Thursday night, as the next in a late-winter parade of soggy storms takes aim at the region. Some light rainfall is possible Friday morning—mainly to the north—before the bulk of the moisture parks itself over Puget Sound mid-day. With no rain shadow to protect us this time, we’ll see up to half an inch of rain by the day’s end on Friday. Temperatures will remain steady in the mid- to upper-40s.
It’s the weekend when things take a turn for the interesting. Models continue to show some colder air moving in to the Seattle area on Saturday, although they’ve backed off a bit on the strength of it (big surprise). Still, the air mass has a decent shot of being cold enough for at least a mix of rain and snow showers Saturday night through Monday. At this point, it doesn’t look like Seattle proper will see any accumulation from these showers—partly because the ground will be a little too warm, and also because the showers won’t be particularly heavy or widespread. Any snow that accumulates will do so north and east of the city, thanks to a Puget Sound Convergence Zone that will probably touch off some heavier showers.
Regardless of whether or not Seattle sees sticking snow, the Saturday night-through-Monday period will definitely be chilly, especially by late February standards (just not by late February 2011 standards, when we saw temperatures fall into the lower 20s at night). High temperatures will struggle to climb above 40 degrees both Sunday and Monday, more likely residing in the upper 30s under cloudy (and hopefully snowy) skies.
Enjoy that 50-degree sunshine while you still can.
