February 15, 2024

Forecast Heading Into Presidents’ Day Weekend

By Joseph Renalds and Alec Weise

Hey Huskies, we hope your week has been going well.

Last night was interesting weather wise if you were staying up into the early morning hours. Some areas around Seattle did end up getting a dusting of snow, but it has quickly melted as temperatures have risen into the upper 30s. The winners for snowfall were in Kitsap County towards Hood Canal where some areas had 3-7 inches of wet snow by the morning. The easterly Cascade gap winds that you may have felt last night kept us a bit warmer and drier, but enhanced snowfall as the wind collided with the Olympic mountains. 

Temperatures have warmed well above freezing for most of us now so we will be dealing with a chilly rain with the occasional snowflake mixing in.

We will be seeing the Cascadia Winds return after they take a brief break this afternoon. There will be a fairly strong cross mountain pressure gradient which will cause winds to gust upwards of 50 mph at times. Make sure to be aware of this if you are traveling into the foothills and even some parts of south King County on Friday.

Other than the gusty winds at times, here on campus we will have calmer weather with even a chance to catch a glimpse of the sun. Temperatures tomorrow will start out in the low 30s but top out around 50 degrees in the afternoon. Rain chances will continue as we head into the weekend, but amounts will be rather minimal as the focal point of storm energy will be to the south of us in California. Temperatures look to remain seasonal with highs in the low fifties and lows around 40 degrees.

As you can see, unremarkable rain amounts are expected from now through the end of the week. We can hope as we turn the corner into March, things pick up.  

If this lack of interesting weather has been bringing your mood down, we got some good news in store. We will continue to rapidly gain more daylight as the weeks progress and especially as we head into March with the return of daylight savings time.

Have a great rest of your week Huskies!