WESTERN WASHINGTON — There will be a quick hiccup in our weather on Thursday: scattered rain and lightning in some areas.
It won’t last long, soon clearing out and tamping down the temperatures.
At 10 a.m., a thunderstorm began rolling through downtown Seattle, bringing crashes, loud booms, and flashes of lightning to the area.
At 9:45 a.m., some departures from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are delayed an average of 45 minutes, and possibly longer, according to the FAA.
The heaviest rainfall totals will fall over the Olympic Peninsula, southwest Washington, and the Ocean Beaches through the early afternoon.
“YIKES! Mother Nature woke me up instead of my alarm!Taken this morning in lower Queen Anne. The car alarms went off for this one,” wrote Caroline Anne, who posted this photo on the KOMO #SoNorthwest Photography page.
After the lunch hour, the trend will be for the rain to both shift north and break up.
While an additional brief shower will be possible around Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Kirkland, more rain will be concentrated in the afternoon over Whidbey Island, the San Juan Islands, Port Angeles, and Forks.
Even Bellingham and Mount Vernon may see additional showers through early evening, while Seattle, the Cascade Mountains, and Olympia dry out.
And that’s almost it! A canopy of broken clouds will linger overnight, and may come with an overnight shower around Stevens Pass or Okanogan County. East of Omak, isolated lightning may refire at any point through Friday morning.
More of an onshore push returns as our weather maker, and upper low, passes to the north over BC. We return to the pattern of morning clouds/afternoon sun for a couple of days and a nice weekend.
Remember that heat ridge over the rest of the country? It’ll build a little farther west, and we’ll warm near 90 early next week. I’m hoping it’s another short-lived heat wave, but that depends on whether more lows can move in from the Pacific and Canada to counteract its impact over western Washington.
