Go Back
"Code Purple" air quality alert issued in nation’s capital as Northeast remains shrouded by Canadian wildfire smoke. Follow live updates. Chevron right

Ashburn, VA

61°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Ashburn

Virginia

61°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Ashburn, VA Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

Video

Podcasts

Winter Center

Top Stories AccuWeather Early AccuWeather Prime Astronomy Climate Travel Health Recreation Business Sports
2
Air Quality Alert

News / Winter Weather

Ongoing storm that brought rain and snow to Seattle to head into Rockies

By Jessica Storm, AccuWeather Meteorologist

Published Dec 4, 2021 6:50 AM EDT | Updated Dec 6, 2021 10:16 AM EDT

Copied
Live Coverage For all things weather, 24 hours a day.

A snowstorm in the Northwest caused major delays in Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, as some drivers lost control due to the hazardous road conditions.

A potent storm is impacting the rain-weary Northwest early this week, dumping rain and snow on the region. This can be both hazardous and helpful as the West suffers from extreme drought and the far Northwest remains waterlogged from previous storms.

"After having over 10 inches of rain during the month of November, yet another storm is bringing more rain to Seattle on Monday," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.

The Northwest is coming off one of its wettest months on record, receiving rainfall on every day of November except three. Seattle recorded 10.26 inches of rain, while places to the north, like Abbotsford, British Columbia, recorded twice that amount of rain. This wet weather continued into the start of December as another storm began to track into the northwest United States. Fortunately for some, the storm track has shifted southwards, sparing places in Canada, like Abbotsford, from the worst of the impacts.

Despite the fact that the Pacific Northwest of the United States hasn't been hit nearly as hard by landslides and flooding as its Canadian counterpart by past storms, it is possible for the rain to aggravate saturated soil conditions and cause streams to rise once again in northwestern Washington, allowing for the returning risk of flooding and mudslides.

"This storm could bring a total of 0.50 to 1.00 inch of rain to Seattle, along with lowering snow levels with colder air in place," Pydynowski said.

MORE TO EXPLORE:

Where's the snow? Snow coverage in US for early December lowest in 18 years
AccuWeather's white Christmas forecast 2021
Snowstorm strands dozens inside an IKEA for the night

Snow levels fell below pass level in the Cascades on Sunday night, allowing for an initial rapid accumulation. The roads may be hazardous as untreated slushy and wet areas froze overnight.

Up to 8 inches of snow were reported to the east of Seattle, with 6 inches falling around Roslyn, Washington.

Warm air was being drawn into the storm from the Pacific Ocean on Monday and that trend is expected to continue into Monday night.

“Any snowflakes around Seattle would be limited to the morning and midday hours on Monday with only rain for the balance of the storm into Monday night,” AccuWeather Senior On-Air Meteorologist Justin Povick said, adding that the warmer air is also forecast to nose into the Cascades. Snow will become mixed with or change to rain over many of the passes Monday night.

After the storm crosses western Washington state, it is forecast to progress eastward over the Wasatch Range to the central Rockies early in the week, according to the AccuWeather long-range forecasters.

Areas in the Bitterroots, Oregon and western Montana could also have falling freezing levels down to 1,000 feet, causing travel disruptions in the passes. To the south, however, levels won't fall quite so low and are expected to be over 5,000 feet in the lower Wasatch Range and central Rockies.

Welcome snow could fall across the Intermountain West, along with parts of the Southwest, including parts of New Mexico and Arizona, rescuing ski resorts that took a hit from the recent warm rainstorms.

"Though for much of the region from Montana down to Oregon and down to the Great Basin, we are still in an exceptional drought," said AccuWeather On-Air Meteorologist Kevin Coskren.

While some of this precipitation could help out the West, it has a dangerous side.

"Any time there are fluctuating snow levels, a heavy amount of snow and varying snow density in the Cascades, there is an increased risk of avalanches with the steep terrain," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

There is a chance that Denver could break its persistent drought of snow later this week. The Mile High City has not received any measurable snow since April 21, which would make this the latest on record that snow of at least 0.1 of an inch or greater has not been measured, according to the National Weather Service office in Boulder, Colorado. The previous date which held the record for latest first snowfall in the city was Nov. 21, 1934. Should Denver miss out on the opportunity for some accumulating snow later this week, it could break the longest measurable snow drought on record from 1887 when it did not snow for 235 consecutive days. As of Monday, Dec. 6, accumulating snow had not been reported for 229 consecutive days.

The latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.

Report a Typo
Comments that don't add to the conversation may be automatically or manually removed by Facebook or AccuWeather. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.
Comments
Hide Comments

Weather News

video

Air quality and heart risks

Jun. 7, 2023
Weather News

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, USGS reports

Jun. 7, 2023
Weather Forecasts

'June gloom' to persist in Southern California

Jun. 8, 2023
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

Top Stories

AccuWeather Early

AccuWeather Prime

Astronomy

Climate

Travel

Health

Recreation

Business

Sports

Top Stories

Live Blog

LIVE: Northeast shrouded in wildfire smoke as air quality worsens

LATEST ENTRY

More than 46 million under air quality alerts

36 minutes ago

Health

How long will the bad air quality continue in NYC, Northeast?

2 hours ago

Weather Forecasts

Brewing storm could bring rain to drought-stricken Midwest, Northeast

4 hours ago

Hurricane

Reed Timmer recounts his top 5 most memorable hurricane interceptions

21 hours ago

Hurricane

This metric is a reliable measure of hurricane season’s intensity

2 days ago

More Stories

Featured Topic

Your Local Asthma Forecast

Featured Stories

Live Blog

AccuWeather’s Hurricane Week: An inside look at these destructive forc...

LATEST ENTRY

How wind shear influences tropical cyclones

15 hours ago

Weather News

How inhaling wildfire smoke can wreak havoc on your health

10 hours ago

Climate

Arctic sea may have ice-free summers by the 2030s, new study warns

22 hours ago

AccuWeather Winter Weather Ongoing storm that brought rain and snow to Seattle to head into Rockies
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2023 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Do Not Sell My Data checkmark Confirmed Not Selling Your Data

We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

I Understand

Get AccuWeather alerts as they happen with our browser notifications.

Notifications Enabled

Thanks! We’ll keep you informed.

FEEDBACK