End of August Rain

Just a short blog about upcoming rain for next week. Looking like very good chances starting late Monday night continuing into Wednesday. 

Here’s the European model ensemble total rainfall.  This is a more traditional weather system so northeast Washington will get the most rain and the Basin will see the least amount. But the odds are high that everyone will get something 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1mRIazFL4mutnVL1tFGa3e8T5EMvn-vOc

Spokane should see about  a quarter of an inch or more.  Deer Park may see 1/2” and further north should see more than that. The flow pattern is from the south so even the Basin shouldn’t have a rain shadow.

Temperatures will be in the 90s Sunday and Monday but then much cooler for with the rain. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Very Snowy and Cold Next Week

Image
As we discussed in our previous blog, our mild winter weather is coming to an end.  We'll see some light snow tonight (Friday night), but then it should be snowing most of the day on Saturday, with snow showers continuing Saturday night and into Sunday morning.   The European model isn't too excited about the snowfall amounts with this system for the Spokane area (0.7"), but gives a healthy 3-5" to the northern valleys.  It has been very consistent with this forecast over the past couple of days. Meanwhile the GFS is much more excited about this storm, bringing 6" to Spokane and Sandpoint.  The difference is that the GFS lingers the storm over our area much longer than the European model.   There are lots of other models that give us snowfall amounts somewhere between the GFS and ECMWF forecasts above.  With temperatures right around freezing, this snow will be on the heavier wetter side.  Snow-liquid ratio (SLR) will be around 10:1, which means if you get 0.25&q
Read more

Wetter Weather Ahead

Image
In our last blog, we talked how broad low pressure was forecast to develop over the western US.  The details on this are starting to take shape.  I'll probably provide an update on this during the middle of the week, but here's where things stand now. First, we'll have a few dry and warmer days after our cold front on Saturday night.  High pressure will build into the area Monday through Wednesday.  Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 60s on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a little cooling on Thursday. But it won't last.  The low pressure in the above graph that is off the California coast will merge with the small low off the west coast of Canada.  This will create a broad area of low pressure over the western US by the end of the week. This weather pattern will bring us a cool and wet Thursday night and Friday.  The rain could reach our area by Thursday afternoon, but the best odds are for Thursday night, with showers on Friday.   That said, if the timing slows down,
Read more

Looking Ahead to Spring and Summer

Image
With the snow having melted and the road weight limit signs going up, our thoughts are naturally turning to Spring.  Will the mild temperatures and rain continue?  First, let's look at where we are on moisture. In the Northwest, things overall are on the drier side, with pockets of above normal precipitation. Zooming in a bit, we can see that the Columbia Basin overall has had above-normal precipitation, while much of the rest of the state has had near- or below- normal precipitation.  This makes sense.  We have had very little wind this winter (only one windy storm I can think of).  So the Cascade rain shadow hasn't been a factor this year. Looking even closer at a few locations, we see precipitation is very close to normal for mid-February.  In fact, it's rare that it is so close to normal (I know, that sounds strange).  Here's the Spokane Airport trace since October 1st.  The green line is the actual accumulated precipitation for this winter, while the brown line is
Read more