SEATTLE – The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the mountains in Washington, as several feet of snow and gusty winds are expected.

Forecasters have put a winter storm watch in the Olympics and Cascades for elevations over two thousand feet. Three feet of new snow is forecasted through the next day or so. But that’s being accompanied by wind gusts between 50–55 mph. Travel will be tough, especially tomorrow. That’s when the National Weather Service says to prepare for rare blizzard-like conditions.. The warning is in place from 4 tomorrow morning until 10 Wednesday morning.

Those high winds will hit us in the lowlands too. The National Weather Service also has a high wind advisory from four tomorrow morning through 10 pm Tuesday. Expect west winds gusting to 50 miles an hour on the north Olympic Peninsula.

Then, we will see a blast of cold air moving in. Temperatures by the end of the week are expected to dip into the 20’s. There’s a chance of a couple of inches of snow in our area Thursday night and again another hit of possible snow on Saturday. Weather models are continuing to change, so forecasters are still uncertain about potential amounts of snow. We are expecting a Fraser River outflow event by Thursday and Friday which can spell a “strait effect” snow for our area. That’s when cold air blows over the warmer Strait of Juan de Fuca causing evaporation. Those clouds then stack up on the north side of the peninsula and can bring higher snow fall totals than other areas in western Washington.