Pattern Change?

Wednesday, December 7, 20111:05 P.M.

The weather around here for the past ten days has been incredibly boring. I'd venture to say it has been even more boring than hundreds of left turns on the Nascar track. Sorry Nascar fans.

But there is some good news! The models have been moving toward a pattern change in the extended forecasts, and while it is too early to pin down any details, the models are coming to a consensus that we will finally break out of these constant inversions next week and have some systems come through the area. And one model has been showing a possibility of a four letter word that begins with 's' next week. Oh, and the second letter is 'n' (just to clear things up).

Here is the European model 500mb thickness with sea-level-pressure chart from this morning. This chart was valid at 4 A.M. this morning.

Check out the chart a week later, though! This is the 168 hour forecast.

The ridge has finally moved west, opening up the door for some cooler air and storms.

One interesting thing in the UW WRF-GFS model this morning was that some lowland snow is shown for our area in a week or so. I'm not giving it too much thought though. Seattle forecasters have enough trouble pinning down snow for the next day, let along the next week. It does look like we will transition to a wetter period with cool temperatures though, so lowland snow is definitely a possibility. It's that time of year!

Thanks for reading, I have to rush off to class.

Charlie