Weather Synopsis for Wednesday night through Friday

The "big blow" relented this morning but the same deep low pressure system that brought strong winds E-SE (especially to the western Cascade foothills) and light to moderate mountain snow continues to spin off of Vancouver Island this afternoon. The low continues to rotate light to moderate showers over the Olympic peninsula and a mix of cloud cover and light showers elsewhere. This pattern will continue through Thursday with the most notable weather feature being the slight uptick in snow levels by Thursday afternoon into the 3500-4500' range across the region.

Another low pressure system will deepen rapidly off the Oregon coast Thursday night.  Warm frontal precipitation will spread from south to north over the area and feature a similar pattern to Tuesday night's storm.  We can expect the southern Cascades, the east slopes of the Cascades in general, and Mt Hood to pull down some moderate precipitation amounts Thursday night and Friday.  E-SE offshore winds will pick up Thursday night into Friday morning and become strong but should be a notch lower than Tuesday's peak winds. Cold air pooled along the east slopes of the Cascades and flowing through the Cascade passes will help keep snow levels lower relative to the west side where rain will mix in earlier at lower elevation trailheads. That said all areas will see a slow but steady warming trend with snow levels settling into the 4000-5000' over the Cascades by Friday afternoon as the precipitation tapers off.  There could some localized areas of freezing rain near Snoqualmie Pass for areas due east, but it won't be a main feature of the storm.  Mt Hood will bear the brunt of the warming with snow levels shooting up to 7000-8000' on Friday.