Chilly March

 

And so it ends.  Our long February dry spell has expired.  Plenty of moisture & relatively low elevation snow, along with chilly temperatures, will be the story for the first half of March.  Morn’n Mug ready?

 

The warm & WET flow of air moving over the PNW will continue through mid-week, then conditions will slowly turn notably cooler late week.  High pressure over the Pacific will edge west, along with the upper-level winds shifting to the N-NW by the weekend, will drop temperatures into the chill range.  Snow levels will drop, setting up some rain/snow mixed around 500 - 1,000 ft or so by the early next week.  In the meantime, moderate-to-heavy rain combined with high freezing levels will cause flood concerns.  Heed Nat’l Wx Service statements.  

 

Again, cooler temps will arrive this weekend and be the rule for the following 10 days.  The warmest period for the 1st half of March is now.  The coming weekend (Mar 5,6) will not be dry, but it will also present far less rainfall than the week ahead.  Jacket time again.

 

The week of Mar 7-11 looks mixed, with rain, mountain snow and maybe a dry day thrown in, esp for western WA (Thu the 10th?); some solutions keep it mostly dry after Monday until late Fri.  We’ll see.  All model runs chart another WET blustery system moving in from the NW sometime Fri Mar 11 or early Sat Mar 12.  This storm will be a cold core system, so expect the snow level to drop notably by Sunday Mar 13, esp north of Portland.  While we don’t suggest surface snow, the air mass will be cold, so hail and snow above 500 - 1,000 ft is possible, esp north of Portland on Sunday Mar 13.  We often experience this type of pattern in March, while we await Spring.

 

Mid-March is looking to be wet and blustery at this point.