It’s snow time!

After sev­er­al weeks of most­ly dry/sometimes wet weath­er, Puget Sound and points to the north and the south are see­ing some sig­nif­i­cant snow… per­haps the only major snow event of win­ter 2012.

The Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice fore­cast for today and the next few days calls for plen­ty of snow show­ers. Tem­per­a­tures will remain fair­ly cold until Wednes­day morn­ing, when things will begin to warm up, cre­at­ing what Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton mete­o­rol­o­gist Cliff Mass is call­ing “slush­maged­don.”

Here is the full NWS fore­cast for the next sev­en­ty-two hours:

This After­noonSnow show­ers like­ly. Most­ly cloudy, with a high near 35. West north­west wind around 5 mph. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 70%. Total day­time snow accu­mu­la­tion of 1 to 3 inch­es possible.
TonightSnow show­ers like­ly, main­ly before 10pm. Most­ly cloudy, with a low around 26. Calm wind becom­ing south south­west around 5 mph. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 60%. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of less than a half inch possible.
M.L.King DayA 50 per­cent chance of snow show­ers. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Calm wind becom­ing south around 6 mph. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of less than a half inch possible.
Mon­day NightSnow show­ers like­ly. Cloudy, with a low around 30. South south­west wind around 9 mph. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 60%. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of less than a half inch possible.
Tues­daySnow show­ers like­ly. Most­ly cloudy, with a high near 34. South south­west wind between 8 and 10 mph. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 60%. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of around an inch possible.
Tues­day NightSnow show­ers. Low around 29. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 80%. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of 1 to 3 inch­es possible.
Wednes­daySnow before 10am, then rain. Snow lev­el ris­ing to 1000 feet. High near 38. Chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion is 90%. New snow accu­mu­la­tion of around an inch possible.

And here is the Win­ter Weath­er Advi­so­ry the NWS issued this morning:

…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PST THIS EVENING…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SEATTLE HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW…WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PST THIS EVENING.

  • SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS…SEATTLE…TACOMA…BREMERTON… AND SHELTON.
  • TIMING…SNOW SHOWERS…LOCALLY HEAVY…WILL PERSIST INTO THE EVENING HOURS.
  • TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS…UP TO 3 INCHES.
  • IMPACT…NEAR OR BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL RESULT IN SOME ICY ROADS THIS MORNING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW IS ISSUED FOR THE LOWLANDS WHEN 1 TO 3 INCHES IS LIKELY TO FALL IN 12 HOURS.

Pacif­ic NW Por­tal’s Extend­ed Weath­er page has a pret­ty thor­ough com­pi­la­tion of win­ter weath­er pre­pared­ness tips, includ­ing links for school clo­sures, tran­sit rid­er alerts, and road advi­sories. Many peo­ple have con­tact­ed us over the years to thank us for assem­bling this infor­ma­tion, and we hope you’ll find it use­ful too.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

Adjacent posts

Enjoyed what you just read? Make a donation

Thank you for read­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute’s jour­nal of world, nation­al, and local politics.

Found­ed in March of 2004, The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate has been help­ing peo­ple through­out the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond make sense of cur­rent events with rig­or­ous analy­sis and thought-pro­vok­ing com­men­tary for more than two decades.

The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate is fund­ed by read­ers like you and trust­ed spon­sors. We don’t accept unso­licit­ed ad buys or pub­lish con­tent in exchange for money.

Help us keep The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate edi­to­ri­al­ly inde­pen­dent and freely avail­able to all by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute today. Or make a dona­tion to sus­tain our essen­tial research and advo­ca­cy jour­nal­ism. Your con­tri­bu­tion will allow us to con­tin­ue bring­ing you fea­tures like Last Week In Con­gress, live cov­er­age of events like Net­roots Nation or the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, and reviews of books and doc­u­men­tary films.

Become an NPI mem­ber Make a one-time donation