Rains unpleasant but needed

We have had our share of weather ups and downs across North Idaho during the past week. Last weekend, chilly afternoon temperatures reaching only into the 40s were accompanied by valley rains and mountain snows. However unpleasant, the rains were needed

We have received a healthy 1.84 inches of rain in Coeur d’Alene as of last Wednesday, bringing our total close to the average of 1.93 inches for the month. Unfortunately, the intensely dry summer left us in quite a rainfall deficit, and we are still more than 2.5 inches below normal for the year. Strengthening La Niña conditions should help a bit, and the Climate Prediction Center’s three month outlook does call for above normal precipitation for the November-to-January period. The news is not so good for areas of the Southwestern and Southeastern U.S., which are currently experiencing the disastrous consequences of persistently warm and dry weather. La Niña holds no hope of improving weather conditions in those areas.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a site put together by federal and academic scientists, much of North Idaho is categorized as being in the “severe drought” or “D2” category. The categories of drought range from “abnormally dry” (D0), to the worst case scenario identified as “exceptional drought” (D4). Much of Southern California is in the “extreme drought” (D3) category, while the parched Southeast (with the exception of Florida) languishes in “exceptional drought” (D4).

When tinder dry conditions are accompanied by strong, hot Santa Ana winds coming off the mountains, you have the ingredients for a fire weather disaster, which has struck the areas of California from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The situation began with high pressure located to the northeast of southern California. The clockwise circulation of air brought easterly winds, originating from desert areas, up and over the mountains and toward the ocean. The already hot and dry air warmed and dried even further as it descended the western side of the mountain, drying out the vegetation along the way (The opposite effect happens in North Idaho when southwesterly winds rise up with the sloping terrain, cool, and sometimes lead to clouds and precipitation). As the winds were funneled through canyons and valleys, they increased in speed. Friction and varied terrain created swirling winds which could rapidly change both speed and direction. The results are the current massive wildfires in which conditions are literally too dangerous for either ground or air attacks.

Plagued by wildfires earlier, during the summer season, much of the Southeast now faces a water shortage emergency. In Atlanta, rainfall is 16 inches below normal for the year, making it currently the third driest year on record. Huntsville, Ala., has a rainfall deficit of more than 22 inches, Charleston, S.C., over 10 inches below normal, and Knoxville, Tenn., over 13 inches below normal for the year. Activity from tropical storm season, which can bring torrential rains along with other types of severe weather, has not materialized this year across the southeastern U.S. Hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30 and outside of a large storm working its way into the drought parched Southeast, the situation is only expected to get worse.