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The Puget Sound area is finally in for a spell of mostly dry weather

By Alec Regimbal, SeattlePI

View of the Seattle skyline on a cloudy day.

View of the Seattle skyline on a cloudy day.

H. Piorkowski/Getty Images

After being hammered by heavy flurries of snow and a pair of atmospheric rivers over the past few weeks, most of the Puget Sound area could be in for a break in the wet weather.

The National Weather Service in Seattle said the dry spell should begin Thursday.

“An upper low over southwest Washington this morning will shift south and east of the region by this evening ... finally allowing a meaningful period of dry weather to return to the region,” meteorologists wrote Thursday.  “... If Seattle gets three consecutive dry days, that would be the first in more than three months.”

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The weather service expects some light showers on the Olympic Peninsula Friday night and said the northwest corner of the state could get rained on Sunday. The southern half of Western Washington looks to remain dry through the weekend.

Temperatures will be in the upper 40s to low 50s. The weather service also expects to see a layer of fog develop across the region Friday night.

As for next week, meteorologists say it’s likely we’ll see precipitation sometime between Monday and Wednesday. However, they’re optimistic that accumulations will be nothing like what we’ve experienced over the last few weeks.

“For now, [we expect] at least some mention of precipitation each day, but not particularly wet at this point in time,” they wrote.

During the last week of December 2021, the region was smothered by a massive shot of snow. As much as 20 inches fell in some places. Lingering below-freezing temperatures kept that snow on the ground and allowed for lighter flurries the first week of the new year.

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Then, late last week, an atmospheric river swept into the area and pummeled the region with several inches of rain. The resulting floods led to interstate closures and the death of a 72-year-old man from Cosmopolis. Another atmospheric river hit the region Monday, bringing as much as 10 inches of rain to some areas.     

Alec Regimbal is a politics reporter at SFGATE. He graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor's degree in journalism. A Washington State native, Alec previously wrote for the Yakima Herald-Republic and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He also spent two years as a political aide in the Washington State Legislature.