Sunshine prevails until clouds arrive Sunday

The dry weather that has prevailed so far this autumn is expected to continue into next week with plenty of sun and no rain expected.

The only blip in the weather forecast is a chance of the first fall frost for much of the region on Saturday morning when lows drop into the lower and middle 30s in Spokane. Also, clouds are expected on Sunday.

Temperatures will be trending downward slightly as the region moves toward the colder part of the year.

Highs will start out in the lower 60s today before going to the upper 50s on Friday through Sunday.

Coeur d’Alene should see highs a few degrees cooler than Spokane, but lows will be milder and the chance of frost is negligible Saturday morning under a forecasted low of 38.

While those are some of the coolest readings the region has seen since summer, they are still above normal for this time of year, forecasters said. Fog is not expected to be a problem.

Last week, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration issued an outlook for a strong El Nino this winter and gave its expectations on how it will influence the weather.

The outlook is calling for a 60 percent chance of a warmer than normal winter in the Inland Northwest and a 40 percent chance that winter will be drier than normal.

El Nino warming of tropical waters in the Pacific Ocean tends to strengthen the southern branch of the jet stream in the northern hemisphere. That sends more storms across the southern tier of U.S. states and leaves the Northwest in a calmer, milder pattern. It also tends to limit arctic cold from moving southward.

This tendency is more pronounced after the holidays in January through March.

For this weekend, forecasters said that the storm track is going to split apart and leave the Inland Northwest in relative calm.

Sunny weather is expected to continue early next week with highs in Spokane in the upper 50s on Monday and Tuesday.