Quieter CONUS; LES possible

[Jeb]

Focus shifts west

1:50 P.M. ET 7:05 A.M.

 

M. Ressler, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

 

 

The last of the locally heavy rain is pushing off the East Coast from Maine to Florida. The rain continues to change to snow before ending in the Northeast. Rainfall in the eastern Mid-Atlantic has been generally between 1 and 2 inches. Rainfall in New England is peaking between a half inch and one inch. The rain will be completely out to sea by evening.

 

Meanwhile, the cold air is in place over the Pacific Northwest and an easterly flow through the mountain passes and Columbia Gorge will continue to refresh the cold air already in place. Now a Pacific storm will swipe the Northwest late tonight through Sunday. The precipitation will start as snow across northern Oregon and southern Washington. As milder air moves in aloft, the snow levels will gradually rise but cold air will hold tough in the valleys and the Columbia Gorge. The snow will transition to sleet and then freezing rain first in the Willamette Valley and southwest Washington and then later in the Columbia Gorge. Significant freezing rain is possible. The eastern Columbia Gorge could receive up to 6 inches of snow before the changeover and the mountains could see over a foot. The freezing rain will change to rain on Sunday as milder air continues to sweep in off the Pacific. The rain will spread northward over all of western Washington as the storm advances northward. The freezing rain will linger the longest in the eastern Columbia Gorge possibly lasting into Sunday afternoon.

 

Some lake effect snow will continue over parts of Michigan and Upstate New York through the weekend. The most significant snows will be over Upper Michigan around the Keweenaw Peninsula.