‘Series of fronts’ to bring 40 mph winds to South Sound. Will it exceed the last big storm?
A white Christmas isn’t in the forecast for Western Washington, but a very wet Christmas is.
Western Washington is set to be hit with another atmospheric river, which will consist of a “series of fronts” that will bring heavy rainfall and breezy winds to the lowlands and snow in the mountain area, National Weather Service meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch told The News Tribune.
The first of these fronts will move into the area Christmas afternoon and will continue through Wednesday night. The second one will follow closely behind and is predicted to move in Thursday night. The last front will move in Friday night and will continue through Saturday.
Although several systems are expected to move through Western Washington in the next four days, they won’t be as severe as the last atmospheric river that brought about gusts of 40 to 45 miles per hour, DeFlitch said.
“Right now, I’d say the last one, with regards to the winds, was probably stronger than what we’ll see over the next few days, but I can’t rule it out at this time,” DeFlitch said. “We’re really looking at the first system maybe being a tad stronger, but then again, right now, I’d probably lean towards last week being a little bit stronger.”
Tacoma and Olympia are predicted to have southerly winds between 30 to 40 miles per hour, but it is still too early to predict when these winds will peak, DeFlitch said.
The Tacoma and Olympia stretch is also expected to receive between 2 to 3 inches of rain between Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon, according to a NWS briefing.
Temperatures in Tacoma and Olympia are predicted to be slightly higher than average, DeFlitch said. Christmas temperatures are predicted to be in the upper 40s and will be in the 50s from Thursday through Saturday.
Folks that are traveling through the mountains this week are encouraged to keep monitoring the forecast since there will be an increase in snowfall from Wednesday afternoon through at least Friday.
