March 19, 2021

Forecast: March 19th, 2021

By Preston Donion

Happy Friday, Huskies!

If you’re reading this, you made it through finals week! Congratulations! I’m here to celebrate you, because our weekend weather sure isn’t in the celebratory mood. But spring break is still spring break, so let’s take a look at what we’re working with!

Today looks to be a bit wild, with enough convective available potential energy (or CAPE) for some thunderstorms to pop up later this morning into the afternoon. CAPE shows up in the form of bubbly cumulus clouds that really burst upwards into cumulonimbus clouds (aka “thunderheads”) because the atmosphere is rather unstable. The war waged between the waning winter and arriving spring gives way to this instability around this time of year, so enjoy it while it lasts, or be happy that it’s rather short lived! Temperatures will peak around 50° late this morning before dropping off into the afternoon as a system moves in off the coast. Another factor at play with the arrival of this low pressure system is breezy south winds at 10-15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Perhaps Friday is best spent indoors this time around!

Saturday marks the official arrival of Spring, with the Vernal Equinox occurring at 2:37 AM. Just as you might sleep through that very early arrival of the new season, you may get through your whole weekend without even noticing that Spring has sprung! The weather as we head into the homestretch of March looks to be more of a “same stuff, different name” type of Spring rather than the start of something exciting, as temperatures top out in the mid 40s on Saturday, and the low 40s on Sunday. The one element of the new season that we will be getting an early dose of is those pesky “April showers”, as roughly half an inch of rain is forecast for the entire Puget Sound region through the end of the weekend, with more as you move away from the water. 

Next week looks to continue the wet and cool trend, with Tuesday being our only dry day at the moment. It’s certainly not what I had in mind for the week off, but let us know if this is right up your alley, as we have a constant debate on what conditions are best among our Dawgcast team. Speaking of the team, stick with us as we get closer to the true week of spring break, and can provide you better details on your chances to get outside. Have a great weekend, and enjoy the March Madness in the skies and on TV! May your bracket escape the weekend unbusted 🙂

Reach forecaster Preston Donion at theuwdawgcast@uw.edu. Twitter: @prestondonion

TODAY’S LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM	TODAY’S WIND GUSTS AT 1:30 PM