February 20, 2022

Forecast: February 20th, 2022

Last updated 5:45 PM, Sunday, February 20th, 2022

By Jon Liu

Happy Sunday Huskies!

Hope everyone’s making the most out of their three day weekend, whether you’re out having fun in town, visiting family, or just relaxing at home. There’s been a lot of buzz what with talk of the cold air event this weekend. Last night, our mountain passes received some heavy snow indeed, well past a foot of snow in many parts. In case you’re travelling through before Tuesday, take care, as there’s just a little more snow to come.

New snow accumulation from now until Monday afternoon.

Tonight, we’re looking at some brief precipitation and scattered showers. A shortwave trough is passing through, which is low-pressure system that’s small and localized. This means we may receive some precipitation as it passes through, but nothing particularly substantial. Temperatures tonight are looking to bottom out around 35. As for conditions on Presidents’ Day, we’re looking at some scattered showers throughout the morning, with a chance of some more precipitation later on. In the afternoon, some wind should be picking up, with some northerly wind in Seattle between 8 and 13 mph.

Right around Monday, some cold air is expected to be moving in from our north, bringing some below-freezing temperatures. Monday evening is looking to have a low in the high 20s, with the rest of the week not being much warmer. Tuesday bottoms out around 24, and Wednesday’s expected to have similar conditions, after which we slowly return to normal temperatures for this time of year around the end of the week going into next weekend. We should be all rained out by the middle of the week, giving us some sunny, if not warm conditions.

There’s been some buzz about potential snow on Monday, but current model output is showing that this is very unlikely to happen. The cold air and precipitation are offset by just a little bit, so that when temperatures are low enough for snow in the lowlands, the bulk of the precipitation will have passed. That’s not to say that no snow will be falling; don’t be surprised if you see a flake here and there. However, you should definitely not expect anything substantial accumulation or anything to stick.

That’s all for today Huskies, enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

Reach forecaster Jon Liu at theuwdawgcast@uw.edu or on Twitter @kindofbliu