Season’s snowfall on record pace
It’s another impressive season for snow totals at Spokane International Airport.
As of early Tuesday morning, 80.3 inches of snow has fallen, almost double the seasonal normal. The average snowfall between now and the end of April is about a foot. It’s quite possible that we may challenge the all-time record of 93.5 inches set back in 1915-16. Last year, we were close to that all-time amount with 92.6 inches.
It now appears that our old friend, La Niña, the cooler than normal sea-surface temperature event in the south-central Pacific Ocean, has returned. Although this new La Niña is weak, we may see more of an influence in terms of global weather patterns over the next few months. During the winter of 2007-08, we observed a much stronger cooler than normal sea-surface temperature event.
In addition to the strengthening La Niña, sunspot (solar storms) activity continues to be low. From Dec. 13 through Jan. 8, there were no sunspots observed on the sun. Over the last few days, storms on the sun have increased a bit. It’s difficult to say if our sun is going to become more active in the coming weeks. The lack of sunposts, combined with La Niña, may have contributed to the recent global cooling.
We finally had our January thaw last week as the temperatures climbed and the snow turned to rain. The milder weather resulted in some widespread lowland flooding, but the worst was in parts of Oregon and Western Washington. Readings soared into the mid-40s, even in the higher elevations of the Cascade Range last Wednesday and Thursday.
The floods, mudslides and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest stranded thousands of trucks along the major highways linked to Interstate 5. Television footage was dramatic as it showed long stretches of major highways underwater. Freight trains and Amtrak were also brought to a standstill as some of the tracks were washed out.
As of early this week, a large ridge of high pressure is bringing much drier weather conditions to the snowy and flooded areas of the Inland Northwest. However, I do expect the return to cool and perhaps snowier weather by the end of the month as the high pressure system breaks down.
Overall, I see generally warmer-than-normal temperatures and less precipitation than usual during the second half of the wild winter of 2008-09. The season’s mid-point officially was Jan. 10, and I am fairly confident that we’ve turned the corner in terms of the heavy snows. But, it’s still possible we could see another storm or two that produces some moderate snowfall and challenge the all-time seasonal record. Stay tuned.