Mountain Weather Forecast

Weather Synopsis for Friday & Tuesday

A moisture-laden storm impacts the Pacific NW. As of Friday afternoon, most of the Pacific Northwest sits in the warm sector of the storm with warm air continuing to displace the cooler air prior to the warm front. Temperatures will peak late in the day on Friday. Moderate to heavy rain bands are streaming into the mountains of Washington State with precipitation decreasing at Mt. Hood. Mt. Baker and Paradise will continue to be favored by this SW flow pattern while Hurricane Ridge and Crystal are mostly rain-shadowed. Snoqualmie, Stevens, and Paradise have generally seen a changeover to rain by mid-afternoon on Friday. Cold-air pooling has kept the Baker base as snow early on Friday afternoon, but the cold pool may get scoured out with the southwest flow during the late afternoon, allowing the snow level to rise. Crest-level winds will be moderate to occasionally strong.

The cold frontal rainband is now impacting the Olympics and will bring cooling to the Olympics during the evening hours on Friday and to the North Cascades during the early morning hours on Saturday, so the Baker base should return to all snow by Saturday morning. 

On Saturday, the weakening cold frontal rainband remains over Washington state as the upper low drops gradually southward offshore of British Columbia. The rainband will bringing light to occasional moderate rain and snow, but a wave riding up the front will bring additional moderate to heavy rain and snow to Washington's mountains along with increased moderate crest-level winds late Saturday through Saturday evening with light to moderate rain and snow showers after midnight along with significantly cooling temperatures and slackening winds as the front drops southward into Oregon, focusing the precipitation on the Mt. Hood region.