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

Weekend weather: soggy and snowy conditions continue

Soggy and sometimes snowy weather in lower elevations of the Inland Northwest will continue through the weekend while the mountains add to their deepening snowpacks.

National Weather Service forecasters are calling for more Pacific storms in the steady line of low-pressure systems that began on Jan. 11.

“The Inland Northwest will remain in an active but progressive pattern with alternating periods of wet and dry weather,” forecasters said in their Wednesday forecast discussion.

Occasional fog is possible at times.

Light snow could fall Thursday morning in lower elevations before turning to rain by late morning through the day.

Rain on Friday could add a tenth to a quarter inch of precipitation in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

On Saturday, rain is likely again with a high near 40.

The weather is expected to dry out on Sunday.

Highs should be in the 30s to about 40 in Spokane with lows running from the mid-20s to mid-30s.

Coeur d’Alene temperatures should be a few degrees warmer, especially at night.

In the mountains, precipitation will fall as snow, on top of the already healthy snowpack for this point in the winter.

Several ski areas in the region reported a foot of new snow in the 24 hours ending at dawn on Wednesday morning.

One of the best snowpacks was measured at 49 Degrees North resort near Chewelah, where the lodge depth was 66 inches and the mountaintop had 111 inches of snow on Wednesday.

For the month, Spokane has seen 1.56 inches of precipitation, which is 0.4 inches above normal, with most of that coming since Jan. 11.

Of that precipitation, only 5.4 inches of snow was measured at Spokane International Airport since Jan. 1.

That compares with the 24 inches of snow that fell in December.

Total snowfall for the season stands at 31 inches, which is about normal for the season through Jan. 19.

Temperatures in the past few weeks have been running several degrees above normal, which is consistent with an El Nino winter that tends to bring more moderate temperatures to the Inland Northwest.

The normal high for this time of year is 35 degrees while the normal low is 25.