Western WA to trade sunshine for showers, thunderstorm threat

Happy Tuesday! After several days of sunshine and warm temperatures, we’re finally seeing a change in the forecast later this week.

Wednesday will still be another warm day with plenty of sunshine, but by late afternoon and evening we’ll start watching for thunderstorms to develop over the Cascades and east of the mountains. Some of those storms could linger into the overnight hours.

Then on Thursday, a weak weather system moves across Washington, bringing our best chance for showers in quite a while. This won’t be a widespread soaking rain, and plenty of neighborhoods may stay completely dry, but scattered showers and even an isolated thunderstorm will be possible as the system moves through.

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The bigger concern will actually be east of the Cascades. Fuels are extremely dry, and thunderstorms there may produce more lightning than rain. That means any lightning strikes could quickly spark new wildfires. While the risk is much lower west of the Cascades, we’ll still be watching for a few rumbles of thunder Thursday afternoon.

After that, any leftover showers early Friday should taper off, giving way to afternoon sunshine. The weekend looks much quieter, with a mix of clouds and sun on Saturday, more sunshine on Sunday, and warm summer temperatures returning.