Weather Synopsis for Tuesday night through Thursday

Scattered showers will continue to pepper the west slopes of the Cascades, the Olympics and Mt Hood this evening before tapering off overnight. Showers will quickly taper off as you move east of the Cascade crest. The PNW sits on the backside of a cold upper level trough and although the showers will be light, snow levels are low for mid-April and a quick trace to 2" may accumulate above 3000'.  The flow aloft will become more northerly tonight and we'll see moderate NW-erly winds become Northerly after midnight with even stronger winds in the alpine over the North Cascades. 

Low-level clouds along the west slopes of the Cascades should quickly diminish Wednesday morning, and mostly sunny skies should prevail in most areas. There's just enough instability on the backside of the trough that we should see cumulus build up along with isolated mountain showers in the afternoon that drift from N-NE to S-SW. Light to moderate N-erly winds will continue during the day on Wednesday and freezing levels will rebound to 5500-6000' in the afternoon. 

The upper trough's influence will weaken on Thursday as it shifts further east into the central US/CAN. We can expect dry weather with a slight warming trend. Mostly sunny skies are expected but there may be some mid-level clouds to contend with before we can call it true bluebird.  

NWAC will issue daily Mountain Weather Forecasts @ 230pm through April 28th, with the exception of April 18th, when we will be closed for an end-of-season forecaster meeting.