Kitsap Snow: Where to go from here and a peek into Christmas weather
December 19th, 2012 by Matthew Leach**PLEASE CHECK
PASS CONDITIONS BEFORE VENTURING ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS THIS WEEK.
SEVERAL RESTRICTIONS/DELAYS APPLY. CLICK HERE
FOR UPDATES**
Afternoon snow at Island Lake (12/19/2012)- Photo by: Terrence O’Leary
The weather has been different on literally every point of the Kitsap Peninsula, which makes the forecast from here on out increasingly difficult. Thank you all for your patience as I scramble to track the storm systems and try to pinpoint when we will slowly but surely wiggle our way out of this chilly, marginal pattern.
There’s at least one report of over 30” of snow near Lake Cushman, which of course added up since Saturday. A friend out in Seabeck told me he has nearly a foot of snow on the ground with more coming down. I live near Ridgetop and, as of 3:30 PM, it is snowing heavily outside my window. The temperature is now at 32, but 36 degrees in downtown Silverdale. I have also heard many reports from those living along the Hood Canal that it is either still snowing or rain has changed back to snow. The Seattle National Weather service assures us we will transition to all rain later this evening.
This situation is localized, however, and not everyone will be
running into this problem. With that said, the general forecast is
for rain to continue through the night into tomorrow before the
precip breaks apart and we’re thrown into a showery pattern through
the weekend. For local hills mainly on the western half of Kitsap
County (including northern Mason County), wet snow or rain/snow
showers will continue through the evening, hence the new weather
advisory. I am not seeing much more in the way of additional
accumulation for most spots, although the usual suspects along the
Canal could pick up another 1-2” of the white stuff before we shut
off the snow tomorrow. IF you can believe it 
And the forecast for the remainder of the week through Christmas Eve? Showers and sun breaks with highs in the low 40s. Are we done with the snow altogether? I’m not holding my breath. Things look very marginal, yet again, from the 23rd to the 25th.
For now, most of you should have a green Christmas. I’m probably not ready to say everyone will fall into that category.
I’m leaving tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with the rest of my
family in Idaho, so you may not hear from me for a couple days. But
I’ll definitely fit one more update on this blog before Christmas
Happy Holidays everyone!
Matthew Leach
Forecasting Kitsap
E-mail: forecastingkitsap@live.com
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
December 19th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Watch the passes. I know you have a handle on that.
December 19th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Thanks, Ron! I will post a reminder at the top of the page