An active weather pattern is expected to continue into the weekend. The Inland Northwest isn’t likely to see much in the way of precipitation as a ridge of high pressure off the Pacific Northwest puses weather systems up into Alaska and down the east side of the Rocky Mountains, dropping most of their moisture before reaching the Columbia Basin.
This pattern is forecast to bring breezy conditions to the Tri-Cities and surrounding areas Friday night into Saturday as a low pressure system moving southeast into Saskatchewan will provide the energy needed to bring gusty winds. These will be most noticable from the Columbia Gorge to Wallula Gap where air moving from the high offshore toward southern Canada is squeezed through the Cascades. This is similar to how water in a river speeds up when it reaches a narrow point.
Current indications are that this won’t be a major windstorm, just an annoyance for most outdoor activities. The strength of the wind will be heavily dependent on where air pressures end up in southern Alberta. The European model shows a broad area of low pressure that puts the 1000 hPa line along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. This is similar to the output of the ICON model run by Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany’s weather service). Under this solution wind gusts could reach near 40 mph for the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, and Hermiston.
The American GFS model takes a different approach with the low, pushing its center further east into Manitoba before crossing into the United States. This would mean somewhat higher air pressure for southern Alberta and less energy to bring air from the high offshore across the Cascades. Other model data makes me lean toward the European/ICON solution, but this one is still enough for gusts to 25 mph.
In either case, the strongest winds are going to be in exposed locations like hilltops and open fields. The Yakima Valley is likely to have lower wind speeds, but folks heading toward Spokane or Pullman should be ready for a gusty drive most of the way.
This Canadian low is coming ahead of a broader weather system Sunday into Monday that is forecast to usher in much cooler conditions for next week. Diving south out of Yukon and Northwest Territories, this also won’t have much moisture with it, but highs next week look to be in the 40s with overnight lows in the 20s.
You can see up to date information on what different weather models are showing by heading over to my Forecast Map page.
This article is accurate as of 19:07 PDT 16 February 2022.
