Updated Tuesday 6:45 a.m.
One streak is poised to continue, while another will soon end...
With today's expected high of 50 degrees, we'll extend our streak of at-or-above-normal temperatures to 42 days -- six straight weeks of warm Western Washington winter weather.
A different streak -- a dry one (less than 2" rain over the past 3+ weeks) -- will end as early as tomorrow afternoon... as some steady rains return to the greater Seattle area.
But the big weather issue today is FOG. Lots of it. Visibility has been reduced to less than half a mile in Seattle, Everett, Bellingham, Arlington, and Oak Harbor. Clear skies yesterday evening helped us cool off quickly (into the 30s even in Seattle) and high pressure overhead is promoting light winds. The fog will be slow to burn off... and may last into the early afternoon for some of you. But when the fog & low cloudcover does go away, we'll be able to enjoy another mostly sunny afternoon. Highs will be in the low 50s later today.
Satellite imagery already shows the leading edge of a storm system nearing the Pacific Northwest. But here's the big pattern change: Unlike the past several storms which have "missed" us due to the El Nino split flow in the jet stream, this one will be more of a "hit". The storm track will be pointed at southern British Columbia starting Wednesday and lasting into the President's Day weekend... keeping our rain chance quite high as several more storms move in.
Let's talk about Wednesday: The clouds will arrive first in the late morning... and rain will arrive in Seattle, Tacoma, & Everett by mid afternoon. It'll be a mostly cloudy afternoon with highs in the upper 40s. Rain will continue into Wednesday night.
Thursday will be the first day in a while where it'll just be rainy all day long. Rainfall totals shouldn't be heavy enough for any flooding, but it will be a wet & warm day. Afternoon temperatures will actually warm back up into the low to mid 50s due to the mild southwest flow moving along with the jet stream.
I'll be honest in saying it'll be tough to time exactly when the numerous storms will move through... but I can say this: The rain chance will stay elevated from Thursday all the way to President's Day early next week. Right now, the rain looks to be a bit lighter on Friday... then steady to heavy on Saturday & Sunday... and a little bit lighter on Monday. The exact details on rainfall intensity will be determined by where the storm track sets up -- if it shifts just a little bit further south & right over top of us then the rain could be even heavier.
Long-range forecast models do show a drying trend next week... but not before several days of rain... which begins tomorrow.
Make it a great day!
Paul Deanno, KOMO4 Meteorologist
www.twitter.com/PaulDeannoKOMO
