Weather Synopsis for Thursday & Friday

A strong frontal system dropped south overnight, delivering feet of snow to many locations and making the end of February a memorable one. The front has become more north-south oriented and will continue to weaken this morning, with the dregs of steadier (stratiform) precipitation over CA/OR and extending up to the central WA Cascades.  Scattered showers can be found further north and west, with heavier banding aimed into the northwest Cascades. Strong to extreme SW winds that occurred overnight have begun to ease and will remain in the moderate range today, except locally strong down at Mt Hood. We'll likely see a lull in shower activity for most areas late morning through early afternoon but with a cold and unstable airmass setting up overhead, we should expect showers to increase especially along the west slopes of the Cascades during the afternoon hours and extending through the evening. Heavier showers are likely to contain graupel. Snow levels will sit around 1500-2000' this afternoon during showers. More sunbreaks east of the Cascade crest will help afternoon freezing levels pop up to 3000-3500'. Snow levels will dip to 0-1000' overnight. 

A cold upper level trough offshore will be the main weather feature over the next few days. A shortwave trough will rotate up from the south overnight, reinvigorating showers and ridgeline winds overnight.  Friday looks similar but with another upper level disturbance and daytime heating providing a helping hand to increase shower coverage. This pattern will provide fresh shots of low density snow every 12 hrs, with the higher amounts likely along the west slopes of the Cascades, the Olympics and the Mt Hood area.