I think I’ve already expressed my love for tumultuous weather, but now even I want a break! I think there’s only so much severity one weatherman can take before longing for a nice, dry, mild streak.

Today featured an Olympic Rain Shadow for the main Central/North Kitsap areas while south and west Kitsap got into the rain–not heavy rain, but rain nonetheless.

Than rain shadow is expanding, but showers are still moving through so expect some light rain this evening extending through tomorrow. The main story will be the cloud cover, however, so if you’re thinking tomorrow’s forecast sounds similar to what we went through today…you are right. Highs will be in the mid 40s.

Now…drum roll please!

DAY 1 OF MILD RIDGE: Some sprinkles could fall on Monday, but right now it looks mainly dry and cloudy in the morning breaking out to partly sunny skies in the afternoon. Highs will be in the upper 40s. The temperatures are climbing! The skies are clearing!

DAY 2 OF MILD RIDGE: Partial sunshine after morning fog with highs in the upper 40s and lower 50s is looking likely. It’s getting warmer!

DAY 3 of MILD RIDGE: After some morning fog, skies will clear and reveal partly to even mostly sunny skies and highs look to soar solidly into the 50s!

DAYS 4 THROUGH 6 OF MILD RIDGE: Repeat Day 3.

So it appears it’s time to bring out the sunglasses, but visits to the beach or local pool may have to wait 🙂

Enjoy!

P.S. The mountains will also be sitting under a mild ridge with highs in the upper 30s/low 40s. It will be a sad pattern for skiers to behold, but it won’t do NEARLY as much damage as a Pineapple Express pattern, that’s for sure!

Matthew Leach

Kitsap Weather

7 DAY FORECAST

**NOTE–The video forecast I posted yesterday was apparently under a “private video” setting. I have fixed this problem, and the video is now viewable!**

“Pineapple Express”. It sounds so innocent…so pleasant, even. But Pineapple Expresses can be devastating to the Northwest, dumping voluminous amounts of rain in a short period of time due to their warm and wet subtropical origins (hence “Pineapple”!).

Our most recent Pineapple Express? This week. Before that? December 3rd, 2007, which brought significant rain and flooding to all of Western Washington after the two day snowstorm on the 1st and 2nd. I remember that day vividly. I had never seen Silverdale flood before that moment, and it was a surreal experience. I went down to Belfair a few days after the floods with my church so we could help out the flood victims and it was a tragic scene. For some areas, this most recent event was just as bad or worse than December 2007.

Kitsap got lucky this time around, and it appears we’re going to get lucky again.

A “Pineapple Express, Jr.” is aiming its fire hose at Vancouver Island, but will sag south during the day. Luckily, the Olympic Rain Shadow will play its “mighty protector” role and shadow us during this next battle with moderate rain. North and East of the Hood Canal/Central Kitsap area will get progressively wetter, but again this is not looking like a major battle with rain, as discussed in my video yesterday. It’ll most likely be a nuisance.

We’re still on track for a drying trend after this weekend. In fact, temperatures are looking VERY mild later next week. High temperatures will probably flirt with 60º in some areas, but I’m not so sure we’ll be that warm in Kitsap. Nonetheless, it’ll be a stark change from December when it was feeling like the dead, dead, dead of winter. This time around, the weather could easily be classified as spring-like.

Stay tuned!!

Matthew Leach

Kitsap Sun

7 DAY FORECAST