Winter weather
Snow covers a pine tree last winter. The first snowstorm of the winter is forecast to bring a little snow to the valleys, but a lot to the mountains, at least until it starts raining.
File photo
MOSES LAKE — Technically it’s not quite winter yet, but winter’s here anyway.
A storm is forecast to bring one to two inches of snow to the Columbia Basin and heavy snow to the Cascades today and Saturday. Temperatures are forecast to start warming up Sunday — and with warmer temperatures comes a chance of rain.
“We’re going to be seeing inches of precipitation measured in the Idaho panhandle and the Cascade Crest,” said Charlotte Dewey, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane, during a Thursday morning briefing.
The Moses Lake-Ephrata-Quincy area is forecast to get snow during the day Friday, with a projected accumulation of one to two inches. Less snow, an inch or so, is projected for the Mattawa area.
But the Friday forecast gets a lot more snowy in the Cascades. Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass are forecast to get 12-18 inches of snow today, Dewey said.
“There’s times when we could see up to an inch or more per hour a lot of the day Friday into Saturday,” she said.
That kind of snowfall is most likely at the crest, she said.
“From north of Stevens Pass to Chelan County, extending south through the rest of the Cascades in Washington. Those chances for an inch per hour will start early to midday Friday, and then off and on periods throughout the day Saturday,” she said. “There will be periods Saturday when it could be one and a half to two inches per hour for a little bit of time.”
For people headed east, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene are expected to get one to two inches of snow Friday, but the chances for more snow in the Idaho mountains will increase from Friday night into Saturday. The snow pattern is expected to shift; the heavier snow is projected to fall north of Highway 2, Dewey said.
Depending on the storm tracks, up to four feet of snow could fall in the Cascades by Sunday night, she said. Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass are forecast to get between three and four feet.
“Travel over the passes will likely be extremely challenging,” she said.
Nor is the snow coming by itself. Dewey said winds are forecast starting on Saturday.
“Saturday we will see increasing southwest winds, south-southwest winds, especially across the Basin area,” she said. “So from the south-central part of Washington into the Basin — Moses Lake, Ritzville, the Palouse — we will see gusts up to 30-40 miles per hour.”
High temperatures Friday and Saturday are forecast to be in the mid-30s, with lows in the mid-20s. It starts to warm up Sunday, with highs increasing to the mid-40s to mid-50s in the Columbia Basin. The precipitation isn’t done, however — it will start to rain.
“We will start to see melting of the lower-elevation level snow, as well as our snow levels rising. The precipitation that falls will likely all be in the form of rain," Dewey said.
Snow levels will rise to about 6,000 feet, she said.
Rain is forecast to fall during the day Sunday in the Moses Lake area, tapering off Sunday night. But rain is forecast Monday through Wednesday of next week, according to the NWS website.
Dewey said the forecast for next week is a little uncertain, but there is the potential for flooding in some areas of Eastern Washington.
Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.