Like most Christmases in Seattle, this one won’t be snowy.
For another year, a white Christmas will likely miss the city of Seattle.
The forecast calls for high temperatures here in the upper 30s, with little chance of precipitation Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
However, snow was paying a brief visit in parts of the region Friday afternoon and evening.
The snowfall, at elevations above 200 feet, was expected to turn to rain-snow mix, melting except for foothill communities, where temperatures run a few degrees colder, Johnny Burg, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Saturday will turn drier, with a chance of slight evening flurries. In the higher elevations there might still be snow on the ground Sunday, Burg said.
Snowless Christmases are the norm in Seattle. Since the weather service began keeping records in the 1890s, snow has fallen in the city just seven times on Christmas Day.
It’s been nearly a decade since Seattle saw even a dusting of snow Christmas Day.
In 2007, officials recorded 0.4 inches of snowfall at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Just under an inch was recorded at the airport the following Christmas, said NWS meteorologist Dana Felton.
Some snow fell on Western Washington lowlands Friday morning.
It’s a snowier scene in Oregon, where another winter storm threatened to disrupt the holiday travel rush.
Blizzard conditions closed Interstate 84 in Eastern Oregon between Baker City and Pendleton early Friday. A winter-weather advisory is in effect for most of the eastern and central parts of the state through late Friday, with up to a foot of snow expected in the Cascade Mountain passes.
Holiday weather will be frightful for others across the nation, too, with snow stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the upper Midwest on Saturday and possible severe weather in the middle of the U.S. on Christmas Day.
A severe blizzard has descended in the Dakotas, and a winter-storm watch was declared from Montana to Lake Superior.