It might not be Groundhog Day yet, but we sure keep seeing our shadows this January. Blue skies and bright winter sun have been key in creating our silhouettes on the sidewalks for weeks on end. However, unlike in the movie of the same name, we won’t keep reliving this same weather over and over…the end of the storm-free streak is near.
In the short-term, we’ll keep the quiet skies going a bit longer. Starry skies and a chilly air mass will allow temps to tumble mainly into the 20s by dawn. We’ll see areas of frost or patchy freezing fog kick off the early commute, so watch for slippery spots. By the afternoon, the January sunshine will indeed bounce back again, making for a terrific Tuesday with highs in the middle to upper 40s around the Sound.
Wednesday features more of the same, but change is finally in the works by Thursday. Our big ridge of high pressure breaks down, allowing increasing high clouds to stream back into the region. Routine wet weather rolls into Western Washington late Thursday night into Friday, finishing up the month on a soggy note for the 31st of January. The snow level will be around pass level, so while mountain travel gets tricky, the ski resorts will pick up some much-needed fresh snow on the runs.
In fact, a solid 1-3 feet of snow will tally up at those ski resorts by the end of the weekend. However, it will get colder and colder as we head into early February, and as such, the snow level starts to lower, too.
As usual, we start to lose our precipitation at the same time as the cold air invades, so it might be hard to get *widespread* lowland snow this time, but scattered pockets of accumulating snow are certainly possible Sunday and Monday.
At nearly a week out, it’s too soon to be decisive about timing and totals, but watch the forecast closely as the necessary ingredients come together for at least a nice round of February flurries.
Have a great night,
Shannon
Meteorologist Shannon O’Donnell
The KOMO4 Forecast Team
Updated Monday Evening
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