Wetand News

The latest model output supports the threat of serious snow tonight for our region. The UW's highest resolution forecast model shows substantial regional variations, with the heaviest lowland snow from Seattle northward, with far less over Tacoma.    But there is uncertainty on the exact location of the snow band...so keep that in mind.  Seattle will face 2-5 inches if this forecast is correct.  Road temperatures are now near freezing...so this is going to stick in places where SDOT and WSDOT have not pretreated or where plows are not active. The very latest NOAA/NWS HRRR forecast (made hourly!) has a similar pattern but only about 1-2 inches over Seattle (see below).  This even does not have the strength to give us mega snow event (8 inches plus, but it will be more than few days ago for many. The official National Weather Service totals is for 2-3 inches over Seattle, which is quite reasonable.

Some flakes are falling over the western Washington lowlands right now--but this is not a serious issue.  Roads are still quite warm and there is some minor accumulations on grass for some higher elevation locations (see the picture below at the intersection of I-90 and SR 18 east of Issaquah. The freezing level (and thus the snow level) has dropped considerably over the past day, with the freezing level (the temperature aloft where the atmosphere cools to 32F) now around 800 ft (see image from Seattle SnowWatch below).  A few melting flakes have reached sea level as a weak weather system moves through this morning. But if you live at a higher elevation, the scene was more winterlike (take a look at the picture at 1170 ft in Bellevue at the home of Dr. Peter Benda). A stronger weather system is approaching the Northwest and will reach us tonight...and we will have some cooler air in place.   This is not an ideal situation for lowland snow (temperatures are marginal), but