Will south Puget Sound, mountain passes get snow this Thanksgiving? Here’s the forecast
November is in full swing, and before we know it, family and friends will be gathering, and many of us will be setting the table for a Thanksgiving feast.
Those traveling or who have loved ones visiting may wonder what the weather forecast is around the holiday.
It’s too early for a precise prediction, but rainy weather isn’t out of the question for South Puget Sound.
“Generally speaking, around Thanksgiving, normal high temperatures are around 50, the normal lows around 40,” National Weather Service meteorologist Dustin Guy told McClatchy News. “And more often than not, being the time of year that it is, normally it does rain at least some that day.”
The Climate Prediction Center, which offers forecasts up to 10 days out, has northwest Washington seeing a 40-60% chance of below-average temperatures and a 33-40% chance of above-average precipitation.
Will the mountain passes be safe to drive?
Over the next week, temperature fluctuations will occasionally result in snow falling on some of Washington’s major passes, such as Tiger and Snoqualmie. As of Tuesday, however, most of Washington’s passes were free of snow, with a chance of frost or ice in some places.
A warmer storm system will move into western Washington over the weekend, NWS meteorologist Kirby Cook told McClatchy News. That system will bring moisture but raise the snow level to Washington’s highest peaks and only drop rain along the roadways.
But cooler temperatures will return to the passes earlier in the week, Cook said, with a couple of inches of snow possible as we approach Thanksgiving Day.
“It looks like (temperatures) do kind of dip down Monday to pass-level again, where it gets cool enough that we can see precipitation,” Cook said. “ It looks like right now the most likely forecast is going to be around maybe a couple of inches at the pass levels early in the week.
“And then after that, it sort of bounces around at or above the pass snow levels, at least probably in the middle part of next week,” Cook continued.
When will it snow in south Puget Sound?
While the passes could see a couple of inches of snow Thanksgiving weekend, it’s unlikely that those in Olympia or Tacoma will see snow.
The average first day of snowfall in South Puget Sound is Dec. 26, according to the Weather Channel.
Extended Thanksgiving forecast
It’s slightly too early for the National Weather Service to provide an accurate Thanksgiving forecast. Weather models typically come into clearer focus within a week range, Guy said, meaning Washingtonians should take another look at the forecast over the weekend.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with the extended forecast, especially that far out,” Guy said. “Right now, the outlook is calling for below-average temperatures and near-normal precipitation.
“Certainly, as we get within a week or less,” he continued, “we’ll certainly start to have a little bit better idea in terms of detail, but that’s sort of what we are seeing right now.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 1:02 PM.
