Rain develops this morning and increases in intensity as the day progresses. By afternoon, it's going to look like typical Seattle spring -- rainy and breezy. Highs will reach the upper 50s.
The front lifts to our north early Wednesday, leaving us with a few lingering showers early but drying out with partial clearing by afternoon. Highs will climb to the mid 60s.
A big ridge of high pressure is then forecast to build in and combine with a thermal trough to bring our hottest weather of the year so far...and we do mean hot, especially by Seattle standards. Thursday will be sunny all day, but not quite too hot yet as the heat still has to build in. Highs will still reach the upper 70s to low 80s.
For Friday and Saturday, our forecasted temperatures have been climbing more with each new forecast. So far we are saying 86 for Friday. Saturday could even end up being a few degrees warmer in the Puget Sound area, but mid 80s are good for now. The record high temperature for Friday is 84, set in 1985 and for Saturday it is 85, set in 1956. So those records could be broken.
OnSaturday, Alpental says they're going to open up this weekend for another round of skiing. In the meantime, it'll likely be in the 70s and 80s up in the mountains too as freezing levels go up to 12,000 feet. So maybe you can actually ski in shorts? Just don't fall down. Long time residents know heat waves don't last too long around here, and when they break, they can break hard. This time is no different. The big temperature crash comes Sunday as a push of marine air comes rolling ashore, kicking on our natural air conditioning.
When you awake Sunday morning, it'll likely be cloudy with even some possible drizzle that will hang around through the day. Highs could be as much as 20-30 degrees cooler only reaching the upper 50s to mid 60s.
Cool, cloudy weather lingers into Monday and the long range forecasts keep us fairly normal next week.
Jim Castillo
KOMOTV Meteorologist
Announcing the launch of Scott's Weather Blog
Everyone talks about the weather. So why not 'blog' about it? Check out our new weather blog at this link. We promise a daily light-hearted look at a wide range of weather-related topics.
It will primarily focus on the Pacific Northwest, since the weather that matters most to you is what's over your head, but we'll also touch on national and international weather-related topics du jour, with perhaps some other sciences like astronomy or geology or seismology tossed in for good measure.
But above all, we hope that you can have a little fun and learn a little bit about our crazy weather in the meantime.
