After a period of calm and dry weather, Ferndale area residents can expect a return to a more wintery mix of cold temperatures, precipitation and wind according to forecasters.
Rains are expected to return Thursday evening, January 31st and Friday looks rainy most of the day as a front pushes onshore. Then Saturday looks like a mostly dry day with seasonable temperatures say forecasters.
But then the wintery weather is expected to arrive.
National Weather Service (NWS) Seattle office forecasters say western Whatcom County may see the return of gusty Fraser Valley outflow winds along with a chance for snow in the Ferndale area lowlands beginning Sunday morning, February 3rd. Temperatures are expected to drop to the mid-20s Sunday morning.
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Click for more informationNWS forecasters issued this statement this afternoon,
Showers will start as rain but eventually turn to snow late Sunday or Sunday night as colder air moves into the area. The transition from rain to snow will likely occur in the afternoon over Western Whatcom county and then Sunday night elsewhere as Fraser outflow increases and modified arctic air filters south into Western Washington. It will likely also become rather windy over parts of the Northwest Interior during this time.
Showers will taper off early Monday with largely dry and cool conditions by afternoon. It`s too early to be trying to forecast possible lowland snow accumulation amounts Sunday night and Monday (too much uncertainty and very little skill this far out). The message for now is that there is an increasing chance for some snow down to sea level around Sunday night and Monday morning. The details will be fleshed out in the coming days when confidence is higher. Windy conditions will continue for the Northwest Interior on Monday as well.
The aforementioned northeasterly Fraser Valley outflow winds are expected to continue through Monday and drop temperatures throughout parts of western Washington by around 10°. Forecasters say it will remain cold enough for snow on Tuesday and possibly Wednesday but 2 out of 3 forecast models are expecting dry weather on those days creating little chance for snow.
Forecasters were not willing to speculate on how much if any snow accumulation to expect as the snow event is still several days out.