Wet Weather System To Stick Around Through Tuesday

WASHINGTON — The wet weather system hovering over Western Washington will be sticking around at least through Tuesday.

Over the weekend a strong, wet weather system moved into the region — not that it showed for much of the Puget Sound. As the National Weather Service explains, the area has been protected by a rainshadow. So while most of King, Pierce, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties are only seeing half an inch to an inch of rain from this system, the surrounding areas are being slammed. And that's causing some complications.

One complication is that the convergence zone has been leaving heavy snowfall up in the cascades. By Tuesday night, forecasters predict the storm will have left up to two full feet of snow at Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass. White Pass has it better, but not by much, with just 18 inches of snow.

As a result, meteorologists say travel over the mountains will be extremely difficult. If that's not enough, the NW Avalanche Center are warning about elevated avalanche dangers across the Cascades.

Meanwhile, rivers are expected to remain elevated through the day Tuesday as well. While the Puget Sound avoided being directly hit by the heaviest rainfall, the rain did raise some rivers closer to the Sound, like the Puyallup and White Rivers in Sumner.

Rivers are expected to remain elevated through much of the day, before receding in the evening.

Once Tuesday is out of the way, Wednesday will offer a brief break. Unfortunately, that break will be very brief as another weather system will already be moving in by Thursday.

However, that system is expected to be milder than the current storm, leaving just a quarter of an inch of rain or less for most of the area.