January 24, 2024

A Rather Balmy Weekend

Last updated 1:00 PM, Wednesday, January 24th, 2024

By Amelia Gordon and Jared McGlothlin

 

Good afternoon, Huskies!

Did you enjoy yesterday’s sunshine and mild temps? It’s a far cry from this morning’s weather as rain moved back into the region late last night. Thanks to the series of storms that have been consistently hitting Seattle this season, we are climbing above average for rainfall according to climatology from NWS Seattle. This is good news for our drought risk this summer!

Unfortunately for sun lovers, the rain plans to stay around not only through the rest of today, but through next week as well. Along with it is a steady increase in temperatures, a signature sign of an approaching atmospheric river. Here’s the gist: there is a long stream of moisture making a beeline for the Washington coast this weekend. There is still some uncertainty in how much rain will hit the Seattle area and how much will then slide a bit further north and drench our neighbors in Canada. This graphic below shows that stream of moisture climbing all the way up from the warmer areas of the Pacific on Sunday. We should see half an inch to an inch of rain this weekend in the Seattle area.

Taking a look at the 7-day forecast below, expect to see some sort of rain every day until Wednesday next week. The best chance for a patch of dry weather appears to be Friday morning. The wettest days will be over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday, as temperatures continue to climb to the mid-to-high 50s. This is well above our 49 degree average high for this time of year–in fact, the high of 52 degrees yesterday was the warmest January high so far this month. These balmy temperatures mean higher snow levels (around 7,500 feet), so any winter weather activities in the mountains this weekend look soggy and miserable.

Stay dry the rest of this week Huskies, and good luck on midterms!

 

Reach forecasters Amelia Gordon and Jared McGlothlin at theuwdawgcast@gmail, on Twitter @TheUWDawgcast, or on Instagram @uwdawgcast.