A Look Into The Storm

 It's gonna get windy tomorrow. How windy? Well that's the sixty seven thousand dollar question we've all been asking. The Setup An area of low pressure of the California coast will begin to consolidate and strengthen over the next 12 hours. As it does so, it will be moving north towards Washington and Oregon. The exact track and strength of the low pressure system will determine the magnitude of the winds tomorrow. So let's break down all the possibilities. 1. The EURO  The EURO has been portraying the weakest outcome for this system. The low strengthens down to the about 987 millibars, but the it moves inland over Oregon and Washington, resulting in gusts up to 45 MPH for most of the region. Windy? Sure, but nothing crazy. This would be our "run of the mill" wind event with some tree damage and scattered power outages.  2. Historic Windstorm (NAM) Moving on, the NAM, a mesoscale model that is used for forecasting in the US, has been portraying a particularly...

Christmas approaches so let's dive into the forecast for the week ahead! Today the day has started out very nicely with temps in the mid to low 40's for much of the area. But a system will cross the area today afternoon and evening bringing about rain and mountain snow. After the front crosses, tomorrow should be fairly benign with some showers in the area. Then the forecast becomes extremely complicated as we head into Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve: About 2-3 days it looked like it would just be normal weather (45 and rain) for most of the region. But suddenly models began picking up on the potential for a windstorm, a particularly historic one at that.  The European model had been showing a low pressure system strengthen near the California coast and track almost due north, casting an intense pressure gradient over Western Oregon and Washington.  This would be disastrous for the region as a whole, wind gusts of 70 - 80 MPH in the Willamate valley and up to 60 MPH contin...

Sorry but been a while since I was able to get this up and running due to lots of stuff going on! But as winter break approaches and weather has taken a much more active turn, I will be posting more frequently. After catastrophic flooding in many areas of Washington in the last couple days, the break in the rain this weekend will most certainly aid recovery efforts, however the weather will take a much more active turn in the coming week with more storms entering the area. After a dry and partly sunny Saturday, our next system enters the area on Sunday. Rain should start spreading over most of the area through Sunday afternoon and evening, and really begin to pick up in rate over night. Now the difference with this system is that snow levels will drop on Monday, meaning the precipitation will actually fall as snow at many of the passes! Good news for skiers! Up to 2-3 feet of snow can be expected for Snoqualmie and Stevens passes, with higher totals in the North cascades! Although this...