The rain is back. After a lengthy stretch of fog last week, storms are coming in and promising a mostly soggy week ahead, although the sun will break through on at least one day. That’s according to KNKX weather expert Cliff Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.
“The weather has definitely turned. We had day after day of fog, as high pressure dominated our region. But the jet stream moved down south over us. A ridge of high pressure moved inland, so we’ve started getting a series of storms,” Mass explains.
He says the storms bring more mixing of the atmosphere and that puts an end to any fog.
This weekend, he says the forecast is predominantly rainy with quite a bit of rain on Friday – but a significant break for most of Saturday.
“Saturday should be dry. Sunday unfortunately in the morning, another system comes through. And then there’s one after the other as we get into Monday and Tuesday,” Mass says. “So it’ll be a showery period.”
“The bottom line is: if you want to get out, Saturday is the day. And maybe later Sunday, it’ll be okay.”
To hear the full conversation, including a discussion of how fog and its associated inversions affect air quality, hiking and airport travel, you can click on the 'play' icon at the top of this post.
Weather with Cliff Mass airs at 9:02 a.m. Friday, right after BirdNote, and twice on Friday afternoons during All Things Considered. The feature is hosted by KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp. Cliff Mass is a University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences, a renowned Seattle weather prognosticator, anda popular weather blogger. You can also subscribe to podcasts of Weather with Cliff Mass shows, viaiTunes or Google Play.
