Milder weather coming after a.m. snow showers

More spring showers are expected today as temperatures slowly begin to rebound from the cold air that dropped into the region earlier this week and brought snow showers to some locations this morning. Heavy snow flurries were reported along Interstate 90 in Post Falls at 7:30 a.m., but the snow was not accumulating on pavement. Snow was also reported in northeast Spokane, Cheney and Palouse. “It’s pretty localized,” said Steve Bodnar, forecaster with the National Weather Service. “Any snow that does fall will not accumulate very quickly.” The weather service reported that 6.9 inches of snow fell Wednesday and this morning in Winchester in Lewis County on the Camas Prairie southeast of Lewiston. In the Spokane area today, highs in the middle 50s and lows in the middle 30s tonight are expected to be improvements from earlier in a week when widespread frost was seen on Wednesday morning after a high of only 50 on Tuesday. Weather Service forecasters are calling for a 50 percent chance of rain or snow showers before 11 a.m. in Spokane and rain showers after 11 a.m. Snow levels are rising from 2,200 feet this morning to 4,300 feet this afternoon as temperatures start to warm. The chance of showers in Coeur d’Alene is 40 percent. Slight chances of showers continue through Saturday as the atmosphere begins to warm up. Highs in Spokane will go from about 60 on Friday to 65 on Sunday. Normal temperatures for this time of year are 63 for a high and 40 for a low in Spokane. At 7 a.m., it was 36 at Spokane International Airport, 40 in downtown Spokane, 37 in Coeur d’Alene, 38 in Deer Park and 34 in Pullman. A freeze warning was in effect this morning for the lower Columbia Basin near Tri-Cities and the eastern Yakima Valley around Benton City. However, the temperatures there at 7 a.m. were in the upper 30s and lower 40s.