Featured image credit: Brie Hawkins
When Boston hit 70 degrees yesterday, I assumed it was the warmest weather I’d ever witness in New England in January. Well, Boston hit 74 today. 74 is the average high for June 5th and the highest all-time January temperature since records began back in 1872, so this is an extraordinary event. The warmth was due to strong southerly winds in the wake of a passing low pressure system. This low’s trailing cold front will move through tomorrow, so our warmth will come to an end and temperatures will fall back to the low 40s.
[5PM Record Highs] Not only did all of our 4 climate sites smash daily record highs for the 2nd straight day, #Boston and #Providence also set new all-time January record high temperatures! The high temps today are more typical of late May/early June! #MAWx #RIWx #CTWx #AMS2020 pic.twitter.com/eG3pZ8OZ3R
— NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) January 12, 2020
Anyway, back to Pacific Northwest weather…
As expected, parts of Puget Sound saw light snow this afternoon and evening, with the heaviest snow in a convergence zone in the higher elevations of Southern Snohomish County. Places outside of the convergence zone north of Olympia generally saw less than an inch, with the exception of Skagit/Whatcom Counties, which have seen approximately 2″ and have a Winter Storm Warning for storm totals of up to 4″ and frigid northeasterly winds gusting to 60 mph in the most exposed locations. Places within the convergence zone above 200′ have also seen 2-4″ and snow continues to fall.
In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned how hard it was to communicate the wide variances in weather – and its associated impacts – we can see over very short distances over the Pacific Northwest. The webcam images from WSDOT show this perfectly.
Convergence Zone: Thin band of snow near the Lynnwood area with difficult driving near the I-405 interchange. These webcams are approximately 3 miles apart. Huge variation over a small area. #WAwx pic.twitter.com/tNIVgo6JUW
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) January 13, 2020
The current radar shows the convergence zone continuing to brew over Southern Snohomish County. I’d expect another 1-3″ there before the convergence zone weakens and drifts southeastward. There’s a chance that the zone could scrape Seattle and drop a dusting to the northern part of town, but it should by and large drift into the Cascade foothills over the next several hours.
Precipitation should remain as rain or a rain-snow mix below 500′ for the Portland metro area, with an slushy inch possible over higher elevations like the West Hills. Portland will continue to see chilly showers tomorrow with snow levels rising to 1000′, while Western Washington should remain dry with cold northeasterly winds continuing to blow through the Fraser River Valley.
Portland snow:
Portland may see snow tomorrow night as a low pressure system moves inland near Cape Blanco and spreads moisture northward into the Willamette Valley. The southern track brings cold, dry air through the Columbia River Gorge while still being close enough to spread moisture northward.
The graphic below shows the 24-hour snow from 4pm Monday to 4pm Tuesday. My current forecast is for 1-2 inches mainly falling between 3AM – 12PM Tuesday, but timing and amounts are highly uncertain, especially considering that temperatures will be on the fringe for snow (particularly outside the Columbia River Gorge) and Portland will be on the northern fringe of precipitation.
Credit: University of Washington
Gonna sign off for now… working remotely tomorrow so I can’t stay up late and ‘party’ with the weather geeks, whatever a weather geek party is. 🙂
Charlie
