Radar — KATX
Surface Analysis — Western U.S. (North)
Satellite
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Nearest monitored road: Elm Street (Secondary)
High pressure building into the region with a thermal trough at the surface will promote a warming and drying trend across western washington today. Thursday will be the warmest day of the week across the interior lowlands as the thermal trough pushes inland. The return of onshore flow will bring near-normal temperatures and morning clouds to the area friday through the weekend. A weak system may approach the area on monday.
The latest forecast remains on track this morning with no updates. Warmer and drier conditions are expected across western washington today as upper level ridging nudges into the region and a thermal trough at the surface remains situated along the coast. Light winds and residual moisture in the low levels have allowed for some spots of patchy fog to develop across portions of the southern interior and along the cascade valleys and foothills early this morning. Expect fog to remain rather short- lived today and for it to scatter out by mid morning as the low levels dry under offshore flow. Sunny skies are expected by mid to late morning, with afternoon high temperatures expected to climb into the low to mid 70S for the majority of the area.
Thursday will be the warmest day of the week across the interior as the thermal trough along the coast pushes inland. Offshore flow in the low levels will help dry out conditions, so do not expect as much morning fog across the area. Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 70S under sunny skies and could approach 80 across the chehalis river valley and along the cascade valleys. Temperatures will cool a couple degrees along the coast as the trough pushes inland and reintroduces onshore flow to the area, with temperatures largely expected to top out in the low 70S.
Overall temperatures will cool and trend closer to normal again by friday. Upper level ridging will continue to nudge its way into the region from the northeastern pacific while an upper low over northern ca/eastern or pushes off to the east. The reintroduction of onshore flow will help push marine stratus into the interior for a few hours on friday morning, before the clouds retreat back to the coast by the afternoon. Temperatures will largely be in the low to mid 70S across the interior and in the mid 60S along the coast.
Near-normal temperatures and dry conditions will continue over the weekend as high pressure offshore continues to influence the region. Onshore flow in the low levels will promote morning cloud cover that scatters for afternoon sun. A weak system may approach the area by monday, though there is still some uncertainty amongst the ensembles in regards to when exactly the ridge will break down early next week.
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Northeast flow aloft continues today before becoming a bit variable late overnight as a closed upper low drifts south of the region and upper ridging centered offshore builds into the area. The low level flow is light northerly or weakly offshore. Apart from patchy LIFR/IFR stratus in outlying areas and river valleys that is actively decreasing in coverage so far this morning, VFR conditions will prevail today.
Ksea...VFR today. Surface winds N/NE 4 to 6 knots rising to northerly 9 to 13 knots by late this afternoon.
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Thermally induced low pressure will expand northward along the coast today then shift inland thursday afternoon. Northerly or weak offshore flow will turn onshore thursday night. Light onshore flow will then persist friday through the upcoming weekend as a series of systems pass well north of the waters.
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Warmer and drier conditions are expected today with high pressure aloft nudging into the region and a thermal trough building northward along the coast at the surface. The trough will promote weak offshore flow, which will help dry out the low levels through thursday. Thursday will be the warmest day of the week across the interior as the trough gradually pushes inland. This will coincide with minimum relative humidity values dipping down into the mid 20S to low 30S across portions of the cascades and lowlands south of puget sound. The return of onshore flow by friday will then help minimize fire weather concerns over the weekend and into early next week.
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