Weather Synopsis for Friday & Saturday

An upper level disturbance carving down the backside of a broad trough deposited a welcome 2-8" of snow last night across the Cascades, with the most observed at the Paradise, Mt Rainier, Mt Loop Hwy, and Timberline, Mt Hood weather stations. Showers have already become more scattered this morning, but will stick around the longest for the Mt Hood area, especially the west side, and along the west slopes of the Cascades from the Mountain Loop area and south.  An area of weak Puget Sound Convergence will occasionally produce some more moderate showers in the West Central zone through this morning.  A burst of moderate to strong WNW winds accompanied the trough's passage early this morning.  These winds will also ease today, with a delayed tapering for the Mt Hood area where they'll remain strong through the remainder of the morning.  We'll see a fair amount of high clouds today, with more filtered sunshine for the north Cascades, along the east slopes of the Cascades and the Mt Hood area. 

Upper level ridging building over the area will lead to drier conditions tonight, but then weaken as it shifts over eastern Washington on Saturday. Moderate to strong NW winds will tick upwards again tonight for higher ridgelines and in the alpine. The flattening upper level ridge should allow a fair amount of cloud cover to sneak into the area, especially for the Olympics and northwest Cascades on Saturday where a few drips of precipitation may occur. A low pressure system heading toward south-central B.C. coast will start to pump some milder air into the region with freezing levels rising into the 4000-6000' range Saturday afternoon.