Mt. Rainier pummeled with snow, as more arrives in Cascades

Mt. Rainier’s Paradise area was pummeled with seven inches of snow over 24 hours between Thursday and Friday, with more on the way this weekend in the Cascades.

View this morning from a rather snowy Paradise along Mt. Rainier! Paradise has recorded approximately 7 inches of snow in the last 24 hours! [Image: National Park Service] #WAwx ❄️ pic.twitter.com/JpPvDGBdxP

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 18, 2019

Snow levels dropped between 4,000 and 4,500 feet Friday, all while rain continues to fall in the lowlands of Western Washington. Crystal Mountain expects upwards of seven inches of snow on Saturday, and another four on Sunday.

Stevens Pass calls for similar conditions, with six inches of snow expected between Friday and Saturday, before light rain arrives on Sunday.

Up in Paradise, up to two feet of snow is in the forecast for the weekend.

Washington mountain pass webcams

As for what that all means for Western Washington’s weather in the months ahead, that depends on who you ask. One weather expert even predicted lowland snow in the Seattle area as soon as November.

If you’re former National Weather Service meteorologist Ted Buehner, though, there’s a greater concern, as we head into what he categorizes as a “neutral winter” based on sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

“When you look at our history for neutral winters around here and you rank him for big weather events like floods, windstorm, and snowstorms, number one in neutral years (are) major flood events,” he told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.

Pointing out that floods in the Puget Sound region are most common in November, he advises people to start preparing now for both flooding and wind.

“From my personal perspective, I’ve done a lot of preparedness around my house,” said Buehner. “My roof is clean, gutters are clean, I’ve trimmed the trees. I’ve got all these other things that I’ve been doing to try to get ready in case we have a big windstorm or anything along those lines, where I may lose power for a period of time.”

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