A More Serious Lowland Snow Threat for Later This Afternoon and Evening for Western Washington

The lastest model forecasts and the recent movement of the offshore low is now more threatening for snow reaching the lowlands of western Washington.....so I wanted to provide an update.

The latest infrared satellite image shows the situation and threat for this afternoon.  There is a low west of the Oregon Coast that is swinging bands of precipitation east and northward into western Oregon and Washington.   A first weak band went through Puget Sound early this morning leaving up to about an inch of snow near sea level (red arrow).  But it is the movement of the much strong southern band (blue arrow) that is of more concern.  

The models have had a hard time with this band, particularly on how for north it will move,

The weather radar composite around 5 AM shows the situation in a different way.  You can see the exiting snow band north of Seattle and the more impressive snow band associated with the low over coastal Oregon.

To illustrate the effects of the first band, consider a Seattle cam over NE Seattle.  About an inch of snow fell, but heavily traveled roads are ok.  Back roads are treacherous. 

The UW ensemble system of many high-resolution forecastsfrom last night shows substantial uncertainty in the forecast of snow over Seattle, but a mean prediction of  about 2 inches at SeaTac.  The main snow action in Seattle will be after 4 PM this afternoon (00Z/06 in GMT/UTC time). 

What about the latest UW WRF model forecast?    Let be show you accumulated snowfall (NOT SNOWD EPTH) through the next 24 h.

Through 1 PM. most of the snow is over NW Oregon and SW Washington

More movement to the north by 4 PM.

By 1 AM light snow will have extended through Puget Sound.

Note the end of the world, but many will see some snowflakes, except for the northwest portion of the state.

_____________________________

Steve Pool Scholarship Fund

We are now 65% to our goal of the $100K needed to create a permanent undergraduate scholarship in honor of Seattle's most well-known weather communicator,  the late Steve Pool.   

Please consider making a contribution (tax-deductible) to this University of Washington fund.   And thanks to the hundreds of folks who have already contributed.

Here is the info:

A Steve Pool memorial undergraduate scholarship has been established in his honor (see below)

Once funded by contributions, this new undergraduate scholarship will provide financial assistance to promising Atmospheric Sciences students, fostering the training of the next generation of meteorologists and atmospheric scientists.

If you want to contribute or learn more about Steve, check out the webpage below.   Thanks so much....cliff

https://together.uw.edu/Campaign/steve-pool