Heavy Rain Coming, May Be Gone By Apple Blossom Parade

Thursday is another exceptionally warm day in North Central Washington, but that's about to change in a big way.

"We have a weather system coming in from the northern Pacific," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Daniel Butler. "That's going to be responsible for lowering those temperatures 20-25 degrees."

Butler says we're also in for heavy rainfall, with a flood watch now in effect from 5pm Thursday until 11pm Friday.

"Through this afternoon and this evening, we'll get a quarter of an inch to half an inch," Butler said. "And then Friday morning through Saturday, another quarter inch. So that would be a total of 4/10th of an inch to three-quarters of an inch."

Rain chances will be tapering off by Saturday morning ahead of the Apple Blossom Grand Parade in Wenatchee.

Butler says showers will be light and isolated by the time the parade starts. Saturday's forecast still calls for mostly cloudy weather.

The pattern will affect the entire North Central Washington area. Heavy rainfall can especially problematic in hilly and mountainous parts of the region. Rain will quickly fall down slopes where wildfires have left burn scars.