Another round of active weather is headed to the Northwest as a strong front will move onshore Thursday night into Friday, bringing widespread showers & the thunderstorm possibility before the weekend.

Alerts

High surf is anticipated along the Pacific coastline through Thursday, with wave heights between 6-10 ft and gusts up to 35kts. If you are headed to the water, make sure you’re at a life-guarded beach or staying out of the water!

Forecast

A few stronger thunderstorms will be possible across the northern Rockies on Wednesday afternoon, but we will already be seeing clouds from our next Pacific Front across Washington & Oregon.

Showers will move inland overnight Wednesday into Thursday from the Canadian border down to northern California.

By Thursday morning, as the front races east, widespread shower activity is anticipated. We could see a few thunderstorms too, with the primary concerns being gusty winds, pea-sized hail and lightning.

Lingering shower activity is anticipated through the afternoon and evening on Thursday, with the potential for a little snow mixing in for the higher terrain of the Cascades. Rain & snow showers should diminish as we head into Friday morning with drier air & sunshine returning for the weekend.

As the front pushes inland, more thunderstorms will develop east of the Rocky Mountains, with a marginal risk (level 1 out of 5 on the severe weather scale) for Montana and northern Wyoming on Friday. Severe weather threats include gusty winds and large hail.

Forecast Accumulation

With shower & thunderstorm activity we could see a few pockets of rainfall across western Washington in the range of 2-4″, but generally rainfall accumulation will be less than 1″ in many locations. Snow accumulation will also be limited to the high peaks and will be in the range of 2-4″.

We are covering the unsettled weather in the Northwest as one of our top weather headlines on WeatherNation but also in your West Regional Forecast, :50 after the hour, every hour!