Rain showers the next two days, but a snowy Christmas weekend looms
Seattle - Showers, sunbreaks and mountain snow will be the weather story Thursday afternoon in Western Washington, as the area prepares for a potentially snowy Christmas weekend.
Highs today will drop about five degrees as a wet system continues to bring on and off showers to the area. We should be more dry than wet midday.
Friday will bring very similar weather with a mix of clouds, sun, and rain showers. Temperatures will be slightly cooler.
It still looks like the best chance to see widespread snow around the Puget Sound area will be Saturday night through Sunday. Here’s the latest:
Now through Friday – Just plain old rain showers with highs in the 40s and overnight lows in the mid 30s. Some sunbreaks too!
Saturday (Christmas Day) – As arctic air surges south during the day, rain/snow mixed showers will transition to accumulating snow. The exact timing of this is still up in the air, but the transition will likely wait until after sunset. If you’re traveling around on Christmas and aren’t used to winter driving, you’ll want to get home before the sun goes down on Saturday or you might run into some icy/snowy roads, especially in the north sound.
Sunday – Morning lows will be in the 20s, so anything that falls overnight Saturday into Sunday will be snow. Sunday morning could be the worst time for travel. Sunday afternoon should be a bit better on the roads, especially if we get some sunshine peeking through the clouds. However, the sun angle is at its lowest this time of year. We'll see…
The precip will be showery Saturday night and Sunday, so it could be a situation where some areas get very little, while other spots (especially north) get hit harder. Either way, prepare for a mess on Puget Sound area roads starting Saturday night.
Monday and Beyond – The big story next week will be the frigid cold temperatures. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings we will see temps in the teens and low 20s. Daytime highs will be in the mid 20s. This will be really hard on our houseless population and could become "pipe bursting weather." We won’t get out of the chill until after the new year.
There is still time for the forecast to change. I’ll make sure to send an update tomorrow as things become more clear. We should be ready to give snow total forecasts by then.
MORE FROM FOX 13 WEATHER:
DOWNLOAD: FOX 13 Weather and News Apps
WATCH: Forecast and Radar
READ: Closures and Delays
CHECK: Latest Weather Alerts and Live Traffic Map
INTERACT: Submit your Weather Photo
DAILY BRIEF: Sign Up For Our Newsletter
FOLLOW: Lisa Villegas, Erin Mayovsky, Brian MacMillan, Abby Acone and Scott Sistek