Clouds increasing; rain late tonight

A brief warm up is moving into the Inland Northwest this morning and should continue through most of the day, but another wet weather system should soak the region overnight tonight. Once the skies start to clear on Thursday, the region can expect another round of improving spring weather through the weekend and into Monday. A high today of 58 in Spokane and 57 in Coeur d’Alene are forecast along with increasing clouds. Lows tonight should be in the lower 40s. Rain is expected to arrive later tonight, probably around 11 p.m., forecasters said. Tuesday’s high was 54 in Spokane, but at times seemed much colder with winds gusting to 43 mph at Spokane International Airport. Today should see a light breeze at about 10 mph. The region this morning escaped widespread freezing temperatures after an upper level low pressure area slowed its progress and kept the region under some clouds and light wind for most of the night, preventing the calm and clear conditions needed for temperatures to drop steeply. The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for tonight for 2 to 4 inches of snow above 4,500 feet in the mountains of Northeast Washington, North Idaho and the Okanogan region. At 7 a.m., temperatures across the region were in the middle 30s to low 40s, including the airport at 35, Coeur d’Alene at 40 and Sandpoint and Pullman at 39. After rain early Thursday, the weather follows what has become a pattern this spring of improving for the weekend. Highs under mostly sunny to sunny skies are expected to jump to the upper 60s on Friday and then to the 70s on Saturday and Sunday.