Today's weather front is weakening as it moves inland and dissipates across Western Washington.
For Tuesday and Wednesday, an atmospheric river is expected to form over the region, bringing very heavy rain to the Olympic Mountains, Central and Northern Cascades, and the Oregon coast.
Thursday will bring an upper-level dip, which will be followed by an upper-level crest on Friday. Over the weekend, systems will pass through mostly to the north.
The rain has returned to Western Washington this morning, and the snow level is expected to climb throughout the afternoon and evening. At 8 a.m., the wind was gusting to 30 mph at Whidbey NAS, which is usual for the area.
As of early this morning, the leading edge of the moisture associated with a forming atmospheric river has moved east of 140 degrees west.
The river will be pushed into Western Washington late tonight by a west southwesterly flow above, and the atmospheric river will remain over Western Washington until Wednesday.
Snow levels will continue to climb, reaching their highest point on Wednesday in the 6500 to 8000-foot elevation range. Heavy rain is expected in the Olympics, with rainfall totals ranging from 5 to 10 inches expected between tonight and Wednesday afternoon.
It is expected that the river would rise somewhat northward later Tuesday and into Wednesday as a result of greater precipitation quantities in the Cascades than in the North Cascades.
The North Cascades are expected to get three to five inches of rain, with two to four inches expected in the Central and Southern Cascades.
Temperatures will rise as a result of the warm moist air settling over the region, with highs in the lower 50s on Tuesday and the mid-50s on Wednesday.
Because of the large amount of cloud cover, evening lows will only be a few degrees below the peak temperatures.
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