Cliff Mass: Expect ‘serious’ snow tonight, up to two inches may wreck commutes

The general Seattle area is not done with the snow and cold weather. The region will experience “serious” snow Wednesday. But it’s still nothing compared to what models suggest is coming.

University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences professor Cliff Mass warns that we should be prepared for a rough Thursday morning commute.

“This afternoon, we had a weak band that went through and that produced a little bit of light stuff and mixed rain. But tonight is more serious,” Mass explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “There’s some cold, unstable air that that’s going to be moving through, and the model suggests we could get another one to two inches or so. By tomorrow morning, it could be a repeat of this morning. Maybe even heavier in some places.”

While Mass said there’s some uncertainty with parts of the region, “it looks like there will be snow showers that will accumulate a bit during the overnight hours.”

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Cliff Mass says ‘serious’ snow will hit Seattle area

Cliff Mass said to expect the snow and cold weather to play a role in Thursday’s commute. He calls the snow “serious” because “even the one inch this morning (Wednesday) caused a lot of cancelations.”

“The roads are just warm enough that there’s a little bit above freezing. So if the air temperature’s warm, above freezing, it melts off relatively quickly. And that’s what’s happening today. Now, tonight it’s going to hit overnight. Things will cool down. It’s going to stick for a while. So tomorrow morning, it could be a little bit iffy,” Mass warned.

The atmospheric sciences professor said it’s possible that we’ll experience more snow on Thursday than we saw on Wednesday. And it’ll be fairly consistent throughout the region with about one or one and a half inches that could hit near sea level before it fades north of Everett. Still, the biggest accumulation of snow will depend on elevation.

“It can easily be two, three, or even four inches if you get up to 2,000 feet. Earlier this week, up in the hills above Bellevue, some places got eight inches of snow. So that’s the issue. Elevation makes a big difference in this kind of marginal situation where we’re not super cold,” Mass explained.

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Cliff Mass said some of the weather models are predicting a major snow storm next Friday.

“Some of the models have a real serious snowstorm next Friday — late Thursday/Friday. So we’re gonna watch this one. It’s too far out in time to be sure about it, but winter ain’t over,” Mass said.

He noted that for all the talk about global warming, the last few weeks have been especially cold. In fact, he says we’re experiencing some of the coolest periods in the last 50 years.

“It’s quite interesting,” Mass said.

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