Interim update 6:20 p.m.:
A series of heavy showers with spots of lightning and small hail are moving through the Puget Sound region this evening. These heavy showers will taper back a bit to steadier light-to-moderate rain as we get later into this evening and overnight.
Updated Wednesday 4:55 p.m.
It's the middle of the week -- the apparent new home for rain in Western Washington. While the weekends have been almost completely sunny this month (save for April 1), Wednesdays and Thursdays have been anything but, and this week is no different.
Much of the rain today has been stalled along the coast, as while Seattle has eked out just over a tenth of an inch as of mid afternoon Tuesday, Forks has had 26 consecutive hours of rain (1 p.m Tuesday through 3 p.m. Wednesday, and it was still raining) totally about 2.5" so far.
That rain will gradually slide inland overnight, bringing a soggy evening and night to the I-5 corridor. Already we've had reports of heavy rain around Olympia this evening. Lows will be in the upper 40s.
Thursday will start wet, but we'll gradually taper off to scattered showers with sunbreaks for the afternoon with highs in the mid-upper 50s.
Friday will qualify as a break, as although there will be a few isolated showers around, it's the driest day of the last few. Afternoon temperatures will remain in the mid-upper 50s.
The weekend is a bit of a wild card now. Forecast models had been holding fairly dry -- a weak system Friday was supposed to run into a building ridge and fizzle. But now some models have the ridge not as strong and that system making more headway into the region.
The consensus is not there yet, but we could see a few showers this weekend. Later models this afternoon have even backed off on the showers again, but let's at least introduce the chance of showers and see if we get better clarity as the week progresses. It does look mild though with highs in the low 60s.
Monday is holding dry and pleasant but -- guess what? -- rain returns just in time for mid-week.
Scott Sistek
KOMONews.Com Meteorologist
Follow me on Twitter @ScottsKOMO and on Facebook
