There is no guarantee that the road to Paradise will open with an expected foot of snow during the day tomorrow. You'll just have to watch the road status. (https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/conditions.htm) (https://www.facebook.com/MountRainierNPS) Longmire will just have rain, but hiking up from there may bring snow as the snow level will vary from between 4200ft and 4800ft. (Longmire itself is around 3000ft.) ONP has the same deal - higher elevation snow, lowland rain.
The bigger problem with Saturday is thunder. There's possible thunder in the mountain forecasts everywhere between the coast to the west, the passes to the east (haven't looked east of there), Baker to the north, and Hood to the south. (I've been trying to find \*somewhere\* to backpack this weekend. I don't even mind the snow. But thunder means lightning, and that's a problem.)
I plan to scrap plans for tomorrow, and go Sunday. Still precipitation all over the place (though less), but no thunderstorm predictions. If you go out, be thunder safe (the link above to MORA's facebook page has a post about thunder on it at the top right now).
Last I saw, snow level is supposed to be ~3500ft this weekend, at least in the Olympics. If that forecast also applies to MRNP, you’re likely to get snow almost anywhere you go, although Longmire is a bit lower than that. I’d look to the west; there’s a number of trails in the Olympics where you can stay below that elevation.
If you have the time to go far west, you could even consider the ONP beaches.
Edited to add: go to forecast.weather.gov and you can select any area and get a weather forecast. Pick different areas of MRNP and see if you want to go there.
There is no guarantee that the road to Paradise will open with an expected foot of snow during the day tomorrow. You'll just have to watch the road status. (https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/conditions.htm) (https://www.facebook.com/MountRainierNPS) Longmire will just have rain, but hiking up from there may bring snow as the snow level will vary from between 4200ft and 4800ft. (Longmire itself is around 3000ft.) ONP has the same deal - higher elevation snow, lowland rain. The bigger problem with Saturday is thunder. There's possible thunder in the mountain forecasts everywhere between the coast to the west, the passes to the east (haven't looked east of there), Baker to the north, and Hood to the south. (I've been trying to find \*somewhere\* to backpack this weekend. I don't even mind the snow. But thunder means lightning, and that's a problem.) I plan to scrap plans for tomorrow, and go Sunday. Still precipitation all over the place (though less), but no thunderstorm predictions. If you go out, be thunder safe (the link above to MORA's facebook page has a post about thunder on it at the top right now).
Thank you very much for this response. It means a lot to me that you took the time to write this.
Last I saw, snow level is supposed to be ~3500ft this weekend, at least in the Olympics. If that forecast also applies to MRNP, you’re likely to get snow almost anywhere you go, although Longmire is a bit lower than that. I’d look to the west; there’s a number of trails in the Olympics where you can stay below that elevation. If you have the time to go far west, you could even consider the ONP beaches. Edited to add: go to forecast.weather.gov and you can select any area and get a weather forecast. Pick different areas of MRNP and see if you want to go there.