I did a Google search for driest town in Washington State and amazingly there is really no clear answer to be found. An amazing number of people think that Sequim is the driest place in the state which just blows my mind, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway...I did about a half hour of research other than Google and the driest town I could find in WA was Sunnyside with a yearly average of 6.80". Incredibly dry, but I'll bet some microclimates are even a bit drier. I would be interested if anyone has input on the driest places in either WA or OR. Even California could be fun with this as I'm sure some places are ridiculously dry in that state.

For the record the Sequim area runs 16 to 17 inches for an annual average.

We are getting into the 48-60 hour period of a possible significant winter storm shaping up for the Midwest/Lower Lakes/OV.  18z NAM coming in very robust with snowfall.  DTX may be very close to breaking their all-time snow fall record this season with this storm.  There still is a lot of discrepancies between the models.  The storm system hasn't been sampled yet by the balloon network so expect shifts on the storm track.

There is, sort of, an inferiority complex among weather aficionados/ nerds in California compared to other areas of the U.S. This past winter is an example and the enthusiasm for talking about the weather seems to be at an all-time low.

How about some cold nights?

Steve Johnson -Fresno 3/8/14

 

Long Range-Fantasyland Forecast; High Pressure remains dominant over the region thru Mon, Mar 17^th, with a mini-heatwave possible on Sun, Mar 15^th and Mon, Mar 16^thas the High Pressure intensifies to a 582dm strength. On the 17^tha cold trough moves thru the PACNW and NORCAL, while at the same time the High Pressure ridge retrogrades westward to a position at 150W. This allows the downwind eastern flank of the ridge to produce a colder trough which begins digging further south along the West Coast. By Wed, Mar 19^th the High Pressure ridge has built northward into the ARCTIC region along the Alaska/Yukon border with the downwind flank pouring ARCTIC air due south thru western Canada, then offshore near Vancouver, BC, then onshore at Cape Mendocino on a NW to SE alignment. The short trajectory over water from Vancouver, BC to Cape Mendocino helps to modify the airmass slightly and add some moisture. The 500mb temps aloft drop from -15° during Wednesday to -30°Covernight over Fresno as cold air advection arrives with a cyclonic flow producing some precip for the Southern Sierra with extremely low snowlevels. Not expecting very much in the way of quantity and most of the precip will be in the higher elevations. On Thu, Mar 20^th the High Pressure tilts NE into northern Canada which locks the cold trough over the West Coast into place as the cold front pushes into SOCAL. Cold air continues to advect along the same pathway into CA, with the very short water trajectory slightly modifying the airmass before it arrives into CA…thankfully. If the water trajectory were not involved, temps would be much colder at the surface. On Fri, Mar 21^st the High Pressure ridge offshore weakens slightly, as the cold trough over the WCONUS remains stationary with the cold backside continuing the NNE flow pattern into CA. The trough moves slightly onshore, which removes the water trajectory and thus the moisture content for the atmosphere, so precip becomes minimal. The cold front retracts northward into the Tehachapi Mts with renewed low elevation snowfall. On Sun, Mar 22^ndboth the ridge and trough weaken, but remain in place, with a continued NNE flow pattern which advects a cold and much drier airmass into CA. NOT GOOD! Overnight on the 22^nd could produce very cold temps in the SJV, with a possible HARD FREEZE Event as charts show temps dipping as low as 28° to 32°