Weather quiets down until Saturday

The Inland Northwest is going to get a break for the next few days from the unrelenting parade of snow, rain and wind storms during late autumn this year. Forecasters are calling for cooler temperatures with highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s along with clouds and chances of snow showers today and Thursday. Friday could bring a little bit of sunshine. Increasing chances of snow are likely this weekend with 1 to 2 inches possible on Saturday along with cooler temperatures just below normal for this time of year. Heavy snow accumulations are not likely. Looking ahead to Christmas, forecast models have been showing a resumption of the progressive storm track over the region creating chances of rain or snow through the first of the two holiday weekends. In the days ahead of Christmas, the model shows relatively mild storms moving into California and Oregon and then lifting precipitation into the Inland Northwest. A strong and mild flow of moisture from the southwest is forecast to be poised along the Washington and Oregon coasts by Christmas Eve and moving inland by late Christmas Day. Rain appears more likely than snow under that scenario, especially as the storm moves inland. Winter officially begins on Tuesday. At 7 a.m. today, it was 30 at Spokane International Airport, 33 at Felts Field, 34 in Coeur d’Alene, 30 in Deer Park and 33 in Pullman. The normal high in Spokane today is 33 with a normal low of 22. Spokane so far this season has had 28.9 inches of snow compared with an average of 13 inches at this point in the season. Precipitation is running two inches above normal since Oct. 1 with 6.49 inches of rain or melted snow at the airport compared with a normal of 4.38 through Dec. 13.