Calm weather Christmas Eve, then stormy later Christmas and beyond

On December 24, 2024By Littum

Monday has been dry, but now the rain is fast approaching due to an offshore “bomb cyclone”. There will be no impacts wind wise with this system as it is so far out there. There will be light rain during the evening commute and you can expect rain overnight with a rain/snow mix in the mountains. In the metro area, a gusty easterly wind will be felt until around midnight, after which it will be calm at sunrise.

Tuesday will be an uneventful weather day with only a few scattered, light showers and at times a bit of sun. The warm temperatures continue with highs in the lower 50s again. Christmas Eve itself will be cool, partly cloudy and likely to be dry with calm winds.

From Christmas Day (Wednesday) and continuing through Sunday, we move into a wetter and at times stormy pattern. Plan for changeable weather, lots of rain and a little wind at times. The first strong system will move inland on Christmas Day with increasing rain. A wave of strong southerly winds will arrive at the coastline Wednesday afternoon and peak out there Wednesday evening. As some power outages are likely, we are calling Wednesday afternoon/night a first alert weather day along the coast.

In the valleys, winds will remain only light or gusty through Wednesday night, but will become very gusty overnight through sunrise Thursday. This “event” is very similar to what happened about a week ago when there were a few scattered power outages overnight.

In the Cascades, lots of snow will fall over the next week, but snow levels will remain relatively high, so the passes will alternate between rain and snow day to day, but it will be snow up. A winter storm warning is headed for the Cascades over the height of the pass on Christmas Day. For that reason we also call later Wednesday for a first alert weather day in the Cascades. Heavy/wet snow will affect travel, only in the afternoon/evening. Wednesday morning will be fine for traveling through the passes.

We’ll keep an eye on another system Friday and again Saturday for any wind impacts. We know plenty of rain will fall, but at the moment it’s not enough for widespread flooding.