January 18, 2024

Back To Typical Soggy Rain

Last updated 12:00 PM, Thursday, January 18th, 2024

By Alec Weise, Gaby Castronover, and Joseph Renalds

We’re getting warmer Huskies! The bitter cold wind chills and below freezing temperatures we saw these past few days are behind us now and the air is beginning to rise in temperature. This is because our atmosphere is getting more marine air coming in which is pushing out the dryer arctic air we’ve been seeing lately. However, we can’t get rid of our coats yet as this marine air is also bringing us a good amount of precipitation for the rest of this week and into the weekend. For the rest of the school week alone we are expecting at least a half-an-inch from now until tomorrow night. So make sure to wear a hood when going outside! But no, you don’t need an umbrella.

We are getting back into our more typical marine influenced weather pattern with frequent rains and milder temps.  Highs will be on the trend upwards with mid forties expected  today and tomorrow to around fifty for the weekend. Moderate rain is ongoing across Puget Sound as a warm front pushes in moisture from the South West. This stream of moisture will continue today and into much of tomorrow before a brief break late Friday into Saturday. This will be short lived as additional systems bring rain to the region to start off next week. Looking down the line, there is the potential for an atmospheric river to set up a little over a week from now, but it’s too far out to get into any specifics.                                         

The return of normal weather will also bring additional snowfall to the mountains which is good news if you are still hoping to get up to the passes to ski or even just walk around. At the beginning of January, the western slopes of the Cascades had less than half the normal snow water equivalents that they normally have by that point in the year. However, after our recent stretch of cooler temperatures snow water equivalents have improved quite a bit with the central Cascades now seeing over 80% of their normal amount.

Reach forecasters Alec Weise, Gaby Castronover, and Joseph Renalds at theuwdawgcast@gmail, on Twitter @TheUWDawgcast, or on Instagram @uwdawgcast.