Rainy but warm weather in this week’s forecast

MOSES LAKE — Storms to the west, with rain forecast every day this week in Seattle. Storms to the east, with snow and rain Tuesday in Spokane and rain the rest of the week. Storms to the south – a “potent storm system” spreading along the West Coast from California to Washington.

And in Moses Lake?

The bad news is there will be precipitation most of the week. The good news is it’s forecast to be mostly rain, and it’s going to get warmer.

Tuesday will be bad news for people attempting to travel to western Washington. What is rain in the valleys will be snow in the mountains. “Moderate to locally heavy accumulation (of snow) in the passes,” said Greg Koch, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Spokane.

A little tiny bit of snow is forecast for Moses Lake on Tuesday – snow but little or no accumulation Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the NWS Spokane office. Then it’s going to rain, which is forecast for Thursday.

The rain will bring warmth with it. High temperatures in the Moses Lake area should be “well into the 40s late this week and into the weekend,” Koch said. Saturday’s high temperature is forecast to be 49 degrees.

Substantial temperature fluctuations are normal during winter in Central and Eastern Washington, Koch said. But for the next-to-last week of January, average temperatures are in the mid-30s, and “we’ll be well above that by the weekend.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].