Change on the way for Thursday after beautiful mid-week blue skies, warmer highs

What a gorgeous, sunny late winter day!  Days like this make us almost forget about all the rain... right?  We'll maybe not all of it!  Just enjoy the mid-week sunshine treat for now because a change is on the way.

Tonight, temperatures will cool off into the upper 30s to near 40 after topping out in the low to mid 50s.  

Thursday starts off dry, but rain will move in throughout the day starting at the coast first with the heaviest amounts there and over the Olympics.  Look for 1-2" at the lower elevations and even more, likely 2-4" over the mountains through Friday night. Winds could gust as well up to 20 mph out of the south for breezy conditions at times on Friday.

For the Puget Sound area rain totals will be lower with less than half an inch falling during that time frame.  And at this point we're still forecasting Thursday to be the warmest day of the week with highs in the upper 50s with some spots possibly landing in the low 60s.

There is also some potential for thunderstorms to form, but again it depends on how warm we get ahead of the cold front moving through.  We'll have a better gage on this scenario as we move through tomorrow.

While rain totals will be less inland there is the threat of river flooding, specifically the Skokomish River in Mason County as snow levels rise and mountain runoff will increase.  We may see minor flood stage by Friday evening. 

A "Winter Weather Advisory" will go into effect above 3,000ft from 10am Thursday lasting through 10am Friday for the Olympic mountains, specifically Hurricane Ridge.  We expect anywhere from 8-17" of snow to fall.  Travel could be difficult to impossible at times. 

The weekend features scattered showers at times in between sun breaks for Western WA with mountain snow.  Totals for the Cascades will be less than a 1/2 a foot. 

Have a great rest of the week all! ~Erin Mayovsky, Q13 Forecaster