Heavy rain, mountain snow as storm moves through Western Washington



SEATTLE -- A warm front moving into Western Washington has dumped several inches of heavy wet snow in the Cascade Mountains and temporarily closed mountain passes.

The National Weather Service in Seattle says the storm brought 13 inches of new snow at Stevens Pass between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Snoqualmie Pass, Mount Baker and White Pass also picked up several new inches of snow.

The Northwest Avalanche Center on Thursday warned of high avalanche danger along the west slopes and the Cascade Passes. It advises against backcountry travel.

State transportation officials temporarily closed Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass, two major east-west routes in the state, due to high avalanche danger.

Q13 Meteorologist Tim Joyce has a breakdown of the forecast:

Lots of rain today. It will rain all day Thursday. The Skokomish river will flood but all rivers will run high and fast. This is not a major flood event as lots of the rain turns to snow high up in the mountains.

The lowlands will get tons of rain and this will create problems for the commute times through Friday morning. Standing water on the roads. It will be breezy and mild too. Lows near 45 and highs near 53.

Friday afternoon dries up and the weekend will be mostly dry. There’s even a slight chance of a pop up t-storm for Friday afternoon in the north end of the Sound, north of Everett. We will even get a little sunshine this weekend.