WeatherWatcher: Wild Weekend Ahead, even snow is forecast

 

Convergence zone snow event in Shoreline.
Photo taken April 18, 2008 at 7:09 pm PDT, by Carl Dinse.

Snow is in the weekend forecast; how can that be in April? It's not the first time for Shoreline, even during the recent decades of the global warming era. It is however very unusual; the above photo is from the last recorded April snowfall in Shoreline. You'll note that it was daylight at 7:09pm, with snow covering the road.

The 2008 snow event was the result of very cold air above us and a strong convergence zone event stretching west to east, with Everett at the northern end of the zone and Shoreline at the southern end of the zone. We got about 3-8 inches accumulated on the ground in that event, but it was very short lived, lasting less than 12 hours.

Back to the present, snow is forecast this weekend during the overnight hours down to 200 feet in elevation. This covers most parts of Shoreline and northern parts of Lake Forest Park away from the lake. No accumulation is expected, and any that does stick will quickly melt away as daylight breaks. The best chance of any snow will be the early morning hours Sunday morning and Monday morning.

Another type of weather also has a slight chance of happening Friday night through Saturday night. There is enough unstable air in the mix for convective showers and with that, hail and thunderstorms are possible. The chances of a thunderstorm or hailstorm are as low as accumulating snow.

Breezy north and west winds are expected through the weekend, Monday morning could be the worst of it as a deep low-pressure system moves onshore near the Washington and Oregon border. The strongest winds will be south and west of this low-pressure system; however our region will be mostly spared of any damaging winds.

After we get past Monday morning we will resume our regularly scheduled April weather, seasonable temperatures with highs in the mid-upper 50's and lows in the 40's. Chances of rain are forecast through all next week. It'll be a little while before we enjoy another dry day in the 70's.

Speaking of dry days in the 70's, Thursday was our warmest day of the year so far, clocking in at a high temperature of 79.0°F in the Echo Lake neighborhood and 73°F in the Richmond Beach neighborhood. Marine air greatly influenced the cooler temperatures in Richmond Beach and Echo Lake was getting the east wind warming effects.

For current weather conditions visit www.shorelineweather.com