Weekend weather: Wet, windy conditions arrive

The already wet month of October is going to get even wetter.

A series of Pacific storms are lined up and pointed toward the Northwest.

The first rains arrive on Thursday with periods of rain expected through the weekend and into next week.

Across the region, an inch of rain or more could fall in valley locations through Friday, including Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

Southwest wind gusts could peak at 45 mph in the Spokane region and upper Columbia Basin on Friday.

That is strong enough to cause some limb or tree damage along with scattered power outages, National Weather Service forecasters said.

Cooler air that settled into the region on Tuesday and Wednesday could result in snowfall initially at middle mountain elevations mainly in the Cascades, but snow levels are expected to rise quickly to the highest peaks once the storm gets going.

Remnants of Typhoon Songda were apparent on satellite images and headed toward the Pacific Northwest, arriving on Saturday.

Temperatures are expected to range from the middle to upper 50s for highs to the 40s at night.

Lows at or below freezing on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings ended the frost-free growing season across much of the region.

Wednesday morning’s low at Spokane International Airport was 30 degrees.

Some protected spots likely avoided extensive damage from the first frosts.

Freezing temperatures will disappear from the forecast well into next week.

October is proving to be an especially wet month.

So far, Spokane International Airport has received 1.56 inches of rain through Wednesday, compared with an average for the first 12 days of October of slightly more than a quarter inch.

That has helped make up for a precipitation deficit for the year. Spokane is still approximately one-half inch below normal for 2016.

The normal high temperature for mid-October in Spokane is 61 degrees, with a low of 38 degrees.