Storms and Snow Predicted for Portland and Seattle

Wind, cold weather, showers and maybe snow. That's what the national weather service is forecasting in a special weather advisory for this weekend. Both the Seattle and Portland metro regions may see the coldest weather of the season so far.

Check out The Skanner News Disaster preparedness pages. A good place to start this weekend with the high winds forecast would be What to Do When the Lights Go Out.

In Portland the forecast is for high temperatures of around 45 degrees Friday, dropping to 43 degrees Saturday and 42 degrees Sunday. Expect wind gusts of 18 to 20 mph Friday and Saturday, with showers and a low of 36 degrees. Rain on Friday night will give way to showers Saturday.

In Seattle, expect  highs of 43 degrees on both Friday and Saturday.  On Friday rain is 80 percent certain, dropping to a 50 percent chance of rain Saturday with low temperatures expected to be around 38 degrees Friday, and 34 degrees Saturday.

Sunday in Seattle will see a continuing drop in temperature, with a high around 40 and a low of 31. That drop will continue through Monday, with a high of 34 degrees and a low of 27 degrees.  With a 50 percent chance of precipitation snow showers are possible.

By Sunday night in Portland the temperature is expected to drop to around 34 degrees with a 50 percent chance of snow showers as the snow level drops to 200 feet. The cold snap is expected to last until early next week in the interior valleys of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon and Western Columbia RiverGorge.

Snowfall will generally be limited to areas above 1500 feet through the weekend. However, areas in the Columbia River Gorge could see snow levels fall to near the surface.

While a lot of details are still up in the air, now would be a good time to make preparations for colder temperatures and possible snow.