Snow in the Cascades, Thunderstorms, and Needed Precipitation over SW Washington

Friday was quite a weather day, as a cold upper level low pressure area brought convective showers and thunderstorms to large portions of Washington, while snow fell over the higher terrain of the Olympics and Cascades.

The parking lot this morning at the Paradise visitor center on Mount Rainier (at ~ 5000 ft) says it all.  Looks like a winter wonderful up there.

The visible satellite image at 5 PM Friday showed the very active pattern, with lots of showers over southwest Washington ,with some extending into southern Puget Sound

The precipitation totals over the past 48 h have been impressive, with 1.5-2 inches over the western side of the Cascades and up to 1.5 inches in the mountains of southwest Washington (see below, click on image to expand).  Central Puget Sound was a bit rain-shadowed by the Olympics.

This precipitation was extremely well positioned, wetting down some of the drier areas of the state--the coast, SW Washington, and the western side of the Cascades, something illustrated by the percentage of normal precipitation during the water year so far (see below).  Southwest WA, the western Cascade slopes, and the coast has been the focus of our recent dry conditions, and that was exactly where the most rain fell.

The rain over SW WA had really helped with the streamflow there, returning much of that area to near normal streamflow conditions. (see map)

A good illustration of that is the Chehalis River at Doty, where a below-normal streamflow has risen to near normal:

And what about lightning?    During the 24-h ending 1 AM Saturday, there were several strikes in SW  WA, and many more in Eastern WA.   Few in the Cascades, which is good from a wildfire viewpoint.

We are about to go into a warmer, drier period, with temperatures zooming up into the mid-80s by Wednesday.    There will be some precipitation north of us earlier in the week, which is fortunate--it will keep the BC wildfires down.

Finally, I will end with a treat:  a very nice video of the weather action on Friday from Skunk Bay Weather's video cam looking northward from the Kitsap Peninsula.  You will see how the atmosphere becomes less stable during the day as the surface heats up and the upper trough approaches.  Cumulus clouds develop at low-level initially and then a number of cumulonimbus clouds rev up, including the development of anvil clouds.  Really beautiful.

Turbulent Sky - June 7, 2019 from SkunkBayWeather on Vimeo.