Staying in the wheelhouse of snow potential for a while, coldest air in decades possible next week

 Exact timing and amounts of potential snowfall remain uncertain over next few days.  At this point roads shouldn't be impacted for Christmas eve dinner plans, with most of the wet snow threat tomorrow morning and limited to the highest hills, but Christmas morning could be dicey with colder air and potentially more precipitation.

Let's start with tonight.  Cold air will be a trickle, but showers may increase.  With snow levels lowering from ~2000ft to ~1000ft, possibly impacting the highest foothills overnight into Christmas eve morning. I wouldn't be surprised if we have something a bit less impactful than this past Monday (20th).  Trace - 1" for areas like Eagle Pointe, Wilderness Rim.

Christmas eve day I think we may be on the northern edge of a faster moving low pressure system.  But this will serve to pick up the Fraser outflow bringing temps down markedly, beginning up North with Bellingham in W. WA.  Again, most of the precipitation looks to be focused in the AM, trace-2".  PM might see a dusting from an isolated shower.

Christmas morning could be interesting.  Per the Euro model, we bring in another Low, potentially dropping 3-5” of snow possible to areas ~500ft and above by noon.   Uhh.. I believe that would qualify as a White Christmas:) However, the GFS model is at odds, showing only isolated showers.  We’ll go with trace-3” for Christmas morning.  Christmas night the Euro model strikes again showing a few more inches.  GFS.. ?  Just a trace again.

As challenging as snow forecasting is in the short run, the longer range is definitely a toss-up.  We’ll have to put out another update this weekend, or if anything material changes in the interim.

Oh, but those cold temps coming over the next week (at least).  I don't think we've had a single digit temperature reading in many years (1990 if records serve). If we get down to 10° next week, we’ll be setting a new calendar year temp extreme record! Now that’s one record I wouldn’t mind NOT breaking.  Be sure to get the garden faucet coverings in place, keep pets (and your family) safe, etc., etc. 

Happy Holidays!