A year ago today, the region was under 2 to 3 feet of snow

Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008: Only a trace of snow today, but 2 feet of it remains on the ground in Spokane, and 3 feet in outlying areas of North Idaho. The snow is frozen in place by record-breaking cold. It reaches minus 18 at Spokane International Airport – beating the previous low of minus 6 in 1983. At a weather station southwest of Cheney, temperatures plummet to minus 23. The teeth-chattering weather, however, doesn’t keep pent-up folks from getting out after two days homebound due to the record snowfall. Christmas is only five days away, so malls are packed. The Christmas Bureau reopens for one last day, and families in need line up. The shattering cold, a major story in any other winter, is almost ho-hum news next to this worrisome headline: “Region bracing for more snowfall.”