Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Kittitas, WA

DISCUSSION
The upper ridge over the area will weaken and move eastward as an upper low off the coast moves closer to the region. Moisture ahead of the low will begin to move onshore in central and souther Oregon later this morning and into the afternoon, continue overnight and into Sunday before decreasing early on Monday. The highest probabilities will be over the mountains, but there will be at least low chances over the lower elevations.

QPF amounts will be generally light, only a few hundredths to perhaps 0.10 inches at the lower elevations and 0.10 to 0.20 inches in most other areas with amounts upwards of 0.50 inches at the highest elevations and along the Cascade crest. Snow levels are expected to be quite high, and will rise through Sunday before decreasing again into Monday. Snow levels will rise to over 7500 feet in most affected locations. As a result, little snow accumulation is expected, and only at the highest elevations.

Precipitation will rend on Monday and a ridge will build in, bringing dry weather over much of the area through Tuesday.
Over western areas, some precipitation may begin to move in during the day on Tuesday.

An upper low and trough will begin move towards the region on Tuesday and precipitation ahead of the trough will move in to the area from the west. The low and trough will then move across the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday, bringing widespread precipitation chances before it moves east and out of the area on Thursday.

Snow levels initially start out fairy high, between 5500 and 6500 feet, but by Wednesday night,they will decrease below 4000 feet in many areas. Liquid equivalent QPF is around an inch along the crests of the Blue and Wallowa Mountains and Over and inch along the Cascades. There looks to be at least some snow, especially for the higher passes. Depending on how much falls and when, there could be several inches and we will keep and eye on timing. We are in that time of year where it is more difficult for snow to accumulate during the day due to higher sun angle and warmer ground and while nigh time accumulations remain possible, if the road temperatures remain warm air temperatures have to be colder or snow has to fall heavy.

On Thursday, there should just be some lingering precipitation in the mountains. Beyond Thursday, there is some discrepancy in the guidance, the GFS deterministic brings in some ridging and dry weather in response to a digging upper low over the southwest. The ECMWF is not nearly as strong with this feature and, therefore does not have the upstream ridging and is wetter.
The ensemble clusters are trending toward the deeper low in the southwest, but only slightly. Of course this is about a week away and things can change.

As the trough and low move through Wednesday there will be some gusty winds in the normally breezier locations, like the Columbia Basin, foothills of the Blue Mountains and Cascade Gaps. Winds could gust in the 25 to 35 mph range and possibly as high as 40 mph, though at this time wind advisories do not look to be necessary. Breezy conditions will linger into Thursday, though they should be lower. NBM probabilities of wind gusts >= 39 mph on Wednesday are generally 60 to 80 percent across much of these areas. However the probabilities of wind gusts >= 47 mph are mainly 30 percent or less.

High temperatures will be near or above normal through the week.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z SUNDAY/
VFR conditions and wind less than 10 kts are expected through the TAF period.

Preliminary Point Temps/PoPs
PDT 53 35 52 36 / 0 10 10 20 ALW 54 35 52 37 / 0 0 10 10 PSC 54 33 55 34 / 0 0 0 10 YKM 53 33 55 33 / 0 0 0 0 HRI 54 35 55 36 / 0 0 10 10 ELN 49 30 51 31 / 0 0 0 0 RDM 56 33 53 34 / 10 40 40 30 LGD 57 37 56 38 / 0 10 30 40 GCD 58 38 55 40 / 10 40 60 60 DLS 53 38 55 38 / 0 10 20 10

PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
WA...None.
OR...None.