It’s no April Fool’s joke; a major snow storm in the Cascades plus chilly and showery weekend ahead in the lowlands

A strong Pacific cold front is approaching the coastline this afternoon. Rain has been a bit slow to get going in the western valleys of Oregon and southwest Washington, but it will turn steadier and heavier this evening. A breezy southerly wind is picking up too so this last evening of March will be rainy/windy.

After the cold front moves by around midnight, our weather transitions to a typical spring “showers and sunbreaks” routine through Monday. This will be the type of weather where it’s sunny one minute, then a downpour, then 10 minutes later maybe a hail shower with a rumble of thunder. It’s a colder airmass too so we’ll struggle to get up to 50 degrees through Monday. This cold “upper level low” or dip in the jet stream lingers over the Pacific Northwest through Tuesday. This airmass isn’t quite as cold as what we saw last weekend, so the chance for sticking snow in the lowest elevations is very low, but areas around 1,000′ and above should see at least a dusting at some point Sunday through Tuesday morning.

The good news is that we finally see a pattern change toward warmer/drier weather by the middle of next week. The jet stream moves north of us and warmer air arrives. As we head toward Easter Weekend, temperatures will feel more like late April or even May!

IN THE CASCADES: All these showers in the westerly flow pile up against the Cascades dumping a lot more precipitation up there compared to the lowlands. The result is a major snowstorm with several feet of new snow on the way. A total of 2-4 feet fall from this evening through Monday when the snow tapers off. Luckily wind will not be extreme, so no blizzard conditions, but just a steady dumping of snow for 3 days. A Winter Storm Warning is up for tonight through Sunday.

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