March 27, 2024

Thunderstorms to Sunny Skies

Last updated 1:15 PM, Wednesday, March 27th, 2024

By Amelia Gordon and Ethan Knauss

Welcome back to campus, Huskies. We hope you had a relaxing spring quarter!

Jumping right into a brief look at our climate, rainfall totals are continuing to around normal as we finish up March. While much of our rain may be appearing over the course of a few days rather than a spread of lighter showers, we are right on average for the hydrological year. Due to a warmer winter, partially thanks to El Niño, however, more of this precipitation has fallen as rain than as snow in Western WA, leading to some pretty pitiful snowfall totals.

The rain in the lowlands this week is falling as snow in the Cascades though, so the skiing season isn’t over yet! Along with the rain today, thunderstorms have the possibility of popping up in the afternoon hours for all of Washington. This convective outlook isn’t too abnormal for springtime, as it’s when Puget Sound has frequent instability thanks to warmer temperatures from increased daytime heating and lots of moisture in the air.

The next seven days should see an eventual clearing of skies and increasing temperatures, just in time for the weekend. Now is a great time to get started on those gardens–anyone plant potatoes? The nicest day of the weekend should be Sunday, if you’re looking to get outside again. Monday and Tuesday are prime candidates to beat Sunday’s weather, with even warmer weather forecasted.

The sun is on its way once more Huskies, hang in there!

Reach forecasters Amelia Gordon and Ethan Knauss at theuwdawgcast@gmail, on Twitter/X @TheUWDawgcast, or on Instagram @uwdawgcast.