Weather Alert Day: Gusty and rainy in the lowlands and lots of mountain snow

SEATTLE - Lots of mountain snow continues to accumlate this afternoon and evening. It'll make for impactful travel weather getting over all our mountain passes. In the lowlands, we'll more rain retuning this evening along with gusty winds across the North South.

We'll likely see a pretty strong convergence zone precipitation set up in Snohomish County. So the westerly winds, forced to go around the Olympic Mountains, meet up on the other side and will have more atmospheric lift. That lift can translate to steadier heavier rain, small hail accumulation, and even an isolated thunderstorm embedded in that convergence zone. 

Speaking of the winds, wind gusts we could see wind gusts top out strongest near Admiralty Inlet around 60 mph. That's where there's a High Wind Warning continues until 10 a.m. on Friday.

Anywhere that will see wind gusts more than 30 mph could see tree branches come down into power lines and cause issues and outages. 

The snow in the mountains will be heavy at times with 1-3 feet of additional accumulation today through Friday evening. Gusty winds will mean the snow will be coming down sideways, but also blowing and drifting at times too with some very low visibility and a heightened avalanche threat.

If you must go over the passes, be prepared for winter driving and perhaps to get stuck and shelter in place in your vehicle if the passes are closed without any warning. 

Drier weather moves in by the weekend. A chance of showers possible Sunday and Monday to close out the month. Showers likely for next Tuesday and a chance on Wednesday. March 2021 comes into Western Washington more like a lamb than a lion. -Tim Joyce 

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