Arctic air in March

Yesterday was a fairly successful day for the forecasting community, and the NWS forecasts of light snow amounts with the CZ were on target. The predicted heavy snow fell in the mountains...and the radar really helped us follow the action over the lowlands. Do you see how valuable having the radar is? Isn't it clear why the coastal zone, with its extraordinary active weather needs it? Isn't it outrageous that they don't? Well, you know how I feel about it. My other pet peeve...the failure of Metro's bus tracker software during snow periods when the hit rate climbed...appears to be on the way to being fixed, according to Metro management who emailed yesterday with their assurances that this problem will be addressed before next winter.
A look at the latest satellite pictures shows that shower activity is greatly reduced particularly over the northern portion of western Washington. Mountain snow showers have also declined. The radar shows the weak remnant of the convergence zone across Whidhey and northern Snohomish counties, and some showers basing eastward south of the Olympics. All snow showers.
The next stage in this event will be the movement of much colder air into the region...first evident as gap flow starts to push through the Fraser gap later today...so in Bellingham and NW Washington, the cool northeasterlies should come in late today and tomorrow AM..with some snow showers possible on its leading edge. I have included a prediction for sea level pressure, temp, and wind for 2 PM, you can see the cold air and higher pressure to our north. Upslope snow showers on the NE side of the Olympics should occur tomorrow..but at this point they look light due to the dryness of the air. Monday AM and particularly Tuesday AM should be very cold..perhaps record breaking, with minima in the 20s. So protect those sensitive plants. Tuesday and Wed a major ridge develops over us for sunny, cool and dry conditions.

Finally, for all of you who look at weather charts and obs, remember we are in PDT now and the difference between GMT (UTC) and PDT is 7 hours.