Seattle to ring in new year with dry weather, but it won’t last long

After another round of soggy weather on Friday, Seattle will see a chance of rain New Year’s Eve. But in a stroke of New Year’s luck, Seattleites can expect to start 2023 with dry skies. 

Western Washington residents can expect a dry but mostly cloudy New Year’s Day, said Kayla Mazurkiewicz, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Seattle. Temperatures this weekend and through next week will consistently be in the mid- to upper 40s with a chance of rising into the low 50s.

The dry weather won’t last long, however.

Showers are expected to start Monday or Tuesday and continue through the rest of the week. Mazurkiewicz said it’s hard to tell how much rain will fall, but it’ll probably be a mix of scattered showers and heavy rain.

The briefly drier conditions Sunday are likely to come as a relief after a barrage of wild weather across the Pacific Northwest.

In Seattle, heavy rains and a king tide brought the worst flooding the South Park neighborhood has seen in years, leaving at least 13 homes flooded Tuesday. Some shore-side parks and homes were also swamped, but on a smaller scale.

King tides, also known as perigean spring tides, are the highest tides of the year — reaching up to 13 feet in the central Puget Sound and even higher in the westernmost region.

Meanwhile, a winter weather advisory remains in effect for the Cascade Mountains until 4 p.m. Friday. Forecasters expect about 5 more inches of snow to fall. Drivers traveling over Stevens and Snoqualmie passes should expect slippery road conditions. 

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, nearly 200 flights were delayed and eight canceled as of Friday afternoon, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware.

CORRECTION: Kayla Mazurkiewicz’s name was misspelled in an early version of this story.