Snowfall Above Average, With More On The Way

The 5.4 inches of snow that fell Wednesday in Spokane brought this week’s total to 16 inches, but forecasters warn that a really big snowfall may be coming Friday night.

“Things could get messy during the first part of the weekend,” said John Livingston, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Spokane.

In the meantime, forecasters are calling for on-again, off-again snow showers.

The new storm is bringing the chance of heavy snow - 6 inches or more. But it also is bringing a wave of milder air, which is likely to cause rain or freezing rain in southeastern Washington.

Spokane is expected to get mostly snow, especially during the early hours of the storm, but forecasters aren’t ruling out the possibility of rain and freezing rain on Saturday.

Weekend temperatures could rise to the mid-30s.

This comes after 6 inches of powder fell during the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Wednesday. More than 5 inches of that came after midnight Tuesday.

The snow contained 0.19 inch of water. That means the snow-to-water ratio was 28-to-1, which is considered very light and dry snow. An average ratio is about 10-to-1. Wet snow would be 3-to-1.

So far this month, 19.5 inches of snow have fallen in Spokane, according to the weather service. An average January sees 15.9 inches.

The snowiest January in modern times? Spokane was smothered that month in 1950 when 56.9 inches fell.

, DataTimes