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We interrupt this mild Puget Sound winter for some cold weather ... and snow?

caption: Snow falls in front of the Space Needle on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, in Seattle.  Don't expect a similar dump this month, but lowland areas could still see some flakes.
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Snow falls in front of the Space Needle on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, in Seattle. Don't expect a similar dump this month, but lowland areas could still see some flakes.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

The wind has been blowing and the snow has been falling in the mountains. Now it could get more wintry around Puget Sound.

Washington climatologist Nick Bond told KUOW’s Patricia Murphy that the region's warm, wet winter could be interrupted.

There is potential for snow in the Puget Sound lowlands next week.

"Right now, it doesn't look anything like February of last year, of course, which was spectacular," Bond said. "But definitely it's going to get colder. And there are the prospects early next week to have some enough snow to matter around here."

"... When we get snow in the Puget Sound lowlands, that's not great for snow in the mountains," he said. "And certainly it's cold enough there. But the flow pattern that brings the really heavy snow to the mountains, a cool, moist flow out of the northwest, is a little too warm for snow in the lowlands."

"So while the ski conditions can be very good, it's not the kind of situation that brings big dumps into the mountains."

Just a month ago, there was some concern about snowpack in the mountains. Bond now says that things are looking "a lot better."

"We were at 36% of normal in the middle of December," he said. "As of today, statewide, 66% of normal."

"In the next few days we’ll definitely do pretty well. Now, it's hard to make up that much of a deficit. And so whether when we come out of winter weather we’ll be at normal ... I kind of doubt we'll get all the way there, but we'll probably be in a good enough shape that it probably won't be real hardships during the summer."

Update, 7 a.m., 1/9/2020: Snow showers were reported in southern Snohomish County and in eastern King County overnight. The current National Weather Service forecast for the Puget Sound says there could be a rain-snow mix in lowlands with no accumulation Thursday and Friday mornings. The weather service says the snow is most likely the middle of next week.

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