Sun, Rain and Seasonable Temperatures

The sun glistens over Seattle's Volunteer Park on Saturday. After a sunny weekend, rain returns late Monday.

While the rest of the country shivers a ton, we’ll enjoy another day of mild winter sun.

After dipping to 31 degrees early this morning, the mercury in Seattle is on its way up, headed for a high in the upper 40s thanks to a warming easterly wind. While that’s nothing earth-shattering around here for January—today’s average high is 46 degrees—it’s downright tropical compared to the bone-chilling arctic blast descending on the Midwest, where sub-zero temperatures will team up with bitter north winds to produce wind chill readings from -30 to -50 degrees.

Ah, to be the envy of the nation in weather …

The sunny skies will actually hold through mid-day tomorrow as high pressure moves directly overhead, wiping away any lingering clouds or fog. With breezy winds near the foothills, temperatures will run a couple degrees warmer east of 405, with highs around 50 and overnight lows near 40. For Seattle proper, we’ll see lows bottoming out near the freezing mark again tomorrow morning.

The sun glistens over Seattle's Volunteer Park on Saturday. After a sunny weekend, rain returns late Monday.
The sun glistens over Seattle’s Volunteer Park on Saturday. After a sunny weekend, rain returns late Monday.

The bright start gives way to thickening clouds Monday afternoon as a weak front crawls ashore from the southwest. Light rain should reach the coast early in the evening, spreading inland overnight. For the Seattle area, the first round of showers is likely just before midnight.

On-and-off batches of moisture rotate through the Sound on Tuesday, but they’ll be light in nature, totaling a quarter-inch or less by day’s end. With cloudy skies throughout, temperatures will vary little, hovering mainly in the mid 40s. How’s that for an afternoon high, Chicago?

Another cold front zips in from the west on Wednesday afternoon, packing a slightly stronger punch. Rainfall amounts this time could approach half an inch in Seattle by early Thursday. Further east, the mountains look to finally get hammered, with a foot or more of snow falling from Snoqualmie northward Wednesday into Thursday.

The end of the week looks soggy, with additional bouts of rainfall both Friday and Saturday as our months-long dry spell finally takes a breather. Temperatures will hold steady in the upper 40s during the daytime, only slipping to the lower 40s at night.

You can almost hear the teeth-chattering jealousy in the Midwest from 2,000 miles away.