Seattle weather: Coldest temps in over a decade possible in Western Washington
Mixed rain & snow showers possible Thursday
A Winter Storm Warning goes into effect early Thursday morning as heavy snow and wind gusts up to 45mph are expected.
SEATTLE - Light wintry mixed showers will continue to fall around the Puget Sound area Thursday afternoon, with a very cold dry air mass pushing into the area by Thursday evening.
Temperatures will steadily drop this afternoon and evening as cold air plunges into Washington from Canada today. Highs will be in the upper 30s and low 40s midday with lingering showers. Mountain snow accumulations will be around four to eight inches today at the pass level.
Modified arctic air will push into Western Washington tonight, sending temps plummeting into the low 20s around the central and south sound. The north sound will be impacted by strong, gusty Fraser Valley winds pushing temperatures into the single digits. Daytime highs the next two days will only make it into the mid 20s.
Gusts in western Whatcom, San Juan, and western Skagit counties will reach 30-50 mph in spots overnight. That will bring some incredible cold wind chill temperatures.
Remember, wind chill is how cold it feels to the human body. Wind chill temperatures will be between -10 and -15 in many western Whatcom County locations by early Friday morning. A Wind Chill Advisory is in effect starting at 4:00 PM this afternoon for Whatcom County and it will continue through early Friday.
Models are coming into better agreement that any major snow will fall south of Thurston County and into Oregon Friday and Saturday. Lewis County looks to be on the border of this event and the county could see two to four inches of snow by Saturday evening. Friday and Saturday look more sunny than cloudy for most of us north of Thurston County, however these clear nights will just make things colder.
I'm not expecting widespread record lows the next few mornings, but Saturday morning could bring Sea-Tac the coldest morning it has had since 2010 (when we hit 14 degrees). The coldest temperature ever recorded at Sea-Tac was zero degrees on January 31, 1950.
It's going to take us a few days to break out of the cold. Temps should warm to the low 40s by the middle of next week. Wednesday will also bring the next chance for wintry precipitation.
