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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Precipitation near normal after recent rains in Inland Northwest

After a delightful, warm and drier-than-normal summer and early fall, the weather pattern across the Inland Northwest has now gone to the wet and cool side.

On Tuesday, the Spokane International Airport picked up nearly 0.2 inch of moisture. Coeur d’Alene got more than 0.40 inch from that particular storm system.

Despite the relatively dry summer and early fall, moisture totals are close to normal. Since Jan. 1, nearly 12 inches of rain and melted snow has been reported at the airport. The normal to date is about 12.2 inches. Coeur d’Alene has picked up more than 26 inches of moisture since the beginning of the year.

In terms of temperature, October was milder than normal. The average reading was 5.7 degrees above normal at 53.3 degrees. November is starting off slightly warmer than average.

The big high-pressure ridge that dominated our weather pattern for many months, bringing us plenty of sunshine and warm afternoons, did move to the east in mid- to late October. This allowed the rains to increase in the Inland Northwest, as well as California, where many areas are still under extreme drought conditions. As we moved into November, the ridge backed up over the Western U.S. but did slip slightly to the south, allowing moisture to ride over the top of this ridge and into our region. Unfortunately, California has turned dry as that high-pressure system is strong enough to keep the storms away.

Early season snowfalls were reported near the Great Lakes and into the Northeast. Snowplows had to be used last Sunday in Boston to clear the field for the NFL game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos.

In terms of our weather, we’re going to continue to see a series of storms move through our region through the end of November as moisture rides over the top of the high pressure ridge.

The warmer El Nino sea-surface temperature pattern is expected to keep annual snowfall totals lower than normal as moisture moves in from the milder central Pacific Ocean. But, if this El Nino suddenly falls apart, or even weakens, then we would likely see more snow than what was forecast this winter.

Follow Randy Mannon Twitter,@MannWeather, or www.facebook.com/wxmann.