Seattle sees winter freeze, but meteorologists say it could get much colder

This cold snap marks a significant turn from unseasonably warm weather earlier this month.

But, according to KIRO 7 meteorologist Robert Van Winkle, it is nowhere near as cold as it could get this winter.

“These numbers, as cold as they sound or as they seem, are nothing compared to when we set records around this time of year,” Van Winkle said. “We can get down into the single digits, like we did back in 1968. It was eight degrees on the 29th and eight degrees or six degrees for a record low in 1968 on this day (Dec. 30). The record low for New Year’s is 10 degrees, and that was set back in 1952.”

While the weather has calmed, temperatures are only expected to drop in western Washington ahead of the New Year.

Seattle morning freeze

The temperature dropped to 31 degrees Sunday (Dec. 28) morning, matching Nov. 30 as the coldest morning of this winter season, according to meteorologist Scott Sistek.

“If not for Nov. 30, it would have broken the record for [the] latest first freeze of a winter by four days,” Sistek wrote.

Light freezes and overnight fog will continue until New Year’s this week in Seattle, with mostly sunny skies in the afternoon. Highs are not supposed to pass the mid-40s.

“It even looks like our New Year’s Eve festivities will be calm and weather-worry-free,” Sistek stated. “Our next shot at ‘weather’ doesn’t come until after we flip the calendars with showers moving in Thursday afternoon, courtesy of the fringe of a storm swirling around far to our south.”

Rain is not expected in Seattle until Thursday, lasting for seven days into the middle of next week.

Record warm November leaves Cascades in ‘snow drought’ ahead of winter

A “snow drought” is gripping the Cascades as winter approaches.

Despite a powerful atmospheric river pounding the region with nearly 5 trillion gallons of rain last week, and another atmospheric river this week, federal data shows that November was the region’s warmest on record, leaving the mountains drenched with rain instead of snow.

“A lot of the Cascades in Oregon were less than 20% of average snow pack and a little bit better in Washington, but still much below average,” Dan McEvoy, a researcher with the Western Regional Climate Center, told KIRO Newsradio.

Across the West, snow cover is the lowest for early December since satellite records began in 2001.

“Early season warm snow drought is occurring throughout Washington, where most SNOTEL stations are currently below 50% of median SWE, despite near-to-above median water year precipitation,” the National Integrated Drought Information System reported. “SWE is below median in the Upper Columbia (80% of median SWE), Yakima (50%), and Puget Sound (51%) Basins.”

Warm snow drought is less severe in north-central and northeastern Washington.

There’s still hope, though. McEvoy said a couple of cold, wet storms could quickly turn things around.

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