WeatherWatcher: Time to winterize, snow in the forecast

We have our first, and possibly earliest snow event in at least 15 years in the forecast for Thursday night and Friday night through Sunday morning. Accumulations are not expected at this time as the ground is still warm. This will be our first taste of winter and probably not our last this year.

No Watches, Warnings, or Advisories have been issued

There is a classic snow producing weather pattern right now. If we had this weather pattern 3-4 weeks from now we would have been looking at a serious widespread lowland snow event. Today, however we are far too early in the season so temperatures are marginal for accumulating snow.

The Forecast:
Thursday night after midnight north winds are expected to pick up, bringing the temperatures down to the low-mid 30's. Moisture is expected to still be moving inland and some of these showers or a convergence zone could produce rain and snow mix, or snow, mainly above 500 feet. Keep in mind, Shoreline and Lake Forest Park are very small areas relatively, so this is all by chance if we get any heavy showers or convergence over our specific little area.

Friday will warm up to about the low 40's, removing most of the threat of any snow mixed in with showers. Friday night will be our first freeze, with partly cloudy skies and lows in the low 30's or upper 20's. Time to get those pipes protected and have everything prepared for freezing temperatures outside.

Saturday a new storm approaches, passing from the northwest off the coast to Oregon, which means more cold air gets pulled down from Canada. The chance of rain showers, possibly mixed with snow, increases during the day. Saturday night is calling for likely rain or snow. We still are flirting with the snow level at 500 feet so accumulations are not likely at this time. The rain and snow is expected to continue into Sunday, breaking away to showers in the late morning with the snow level remaining around 500 feet.

Monday things clear up, with sunny skies and highs back into the 50's. It appears we have another warmer storm approaching Tuesday evening to bring increasing clouds and rain on Wednesday next week. Temperatures back to seasonal numbers so the threat of snow is short-lived and gone by this point.

I'll provide updates if anything changes, or if weather advisories are issued. Any time we have a snow level expected near 500 feet it takes very little for it to change to only rain, or only snow. I'll be watching this closely as the storms develop and move in.

For current weather conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com