Monday was dry, but rain is now quickly on the horizon due to a “bomb cyclone” off the coast. There will be no wind impact on this system because it is so far out. Light rain will occur during the evening commute and rain is expected overnight, with a mix of rain/snow in the mountains. A gusty easterly wind will blow in the metropolitan area until around midnight, then it will calm down at sunrise.

Tuesday will be an uneventful weather day with only a few light showers and some sunshine at times. Warm temperatures will continue, reaching highs again into the lower 50s. Christmas Eve itself will be cool, partly cloudy and likely dry with calm winds.

There will be a busier and occasionally stormy pattern from Christmas Day (Wednesday) to Sunday. Expect changeable weather, lots of rain and some wind at times. The first strong system moves inland on Christmas Day with increasing rain. A strong southerly wind will reach the coast on Wednesday afternoon and peak there on Wednesday evening. With some power outages expected, we are calling Wednesday afternoon/night a first alert weather day along the coast.

Winds will remain light or breezy in the valleys through Wednesday evening, but will become very gusty overnight until sunrise on Thursday. This “event” is very similar to what happened about a week ago when there were isolated power outages overnight.

There will be a lot of snowfall in the Cascades next week, but the snow depth will remain relatively high, so the passes will alternate between rain and snow from day to day, but at elevation there will be only snow. A winter storm warning is in effect for the Cascades above the pass on Christmas Day. For this reason, We are also calling later Wednesday a First Weather Warning Day in the Cascades. Heavy/wet snowfall will only affect arrival in the afternoon/evening. Wednesday morning is good for crossing the passes.

We are watching another system for possible wind impacts on Friday and again on Saturday. We know there will be a lot of rain, but at the moment there is not enough for widespread flooding.

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