WeatherWatcher: The S Word is back, and this time is a significant threat

Photo by Carl Dinse January 18th, 2012
Shoreline, Washington

The S word, snow is in the forecast for Friday and this weekend. Some very interesting things are happening and going to happen over the next two days.

First, Friday morning we are starting off with temperatures in the 50's. A cold front in the morning to around noon is going to move south out of British Columbia with heavy rain and strong winds. Much colder air is behind the front and a convergence zone is expected to develop. The target area of this convergence zone is right at the King County/Snohomish County line. The air will be cold enough that this could turn into a pretty significant convergence zone snow event. We could see a trace to 6 inches from this depending on intensity and persistence. Timing will probably be a change to a rain snow mix to even full-on snow in the late afternoon to early evening.

Saturday, a second surge of arctic air (this is the really cold stuff) is going to flow into our area head on. This will likely bring temperatures during the day down into the 30's with night time temperatures into the teens and low 20's. More snow showers are possible as well with this second surge. Additional accumulations could be a trace - 3 inches. Also more strong winds will be accompanied with each surge of cold air. Some Northerly gusts could exceed 40MPH.

This series of systems is still greatly uncertain in forecasts as no one agrees on what specifically it may do, so bottom line is there will be cold air moving in, and precipitation. The huge variable will be how much the cold and precipitation overlap with these two systems. We could see a dusting to a total of 6 or more inches by Saturday evening. Be prepared for the worst and expect winter driving conditions. This is our first significant threat of snow this season and I don't think it will be our last.

Stay safe out there, and for
current weather conditions and updates,
check out my weather station website at http://www.shorelineweather.com