Calmer weather brings low clouds, nighttime fog

The switch from winter storms to calmer weather has cloaked the Inland Northwest in wintertime gray.

Higher air pressure is settling over the region, replacing the parade of storms that left the region coated in snow and ice.

National Weather Service forecasters said stability in the atmosphere will result in little change in weather from day to day.

The atmosphere under a cold weather temperature inversion has become saturated with moisture.

Fog and freezing fog will be a threat at night and during early-morning hours.

Temperatures will vary little from day to day. Highs in Spokane will be in the middle 30s with lows at night in the middle 20s with no wind.

Little precipitation is expected outside of flurries on Thursday through the day on Friday.

The cloud cover hovering the region extends upward to as high as 4,000 feet in elevation.

The temperature inversion will hold pollutants near the ground and cause air quality to degrade from the good to moderate categories, according to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency.

Mountain areas are not going to see any snow accumulations, although recreation areas are working with a decent snowpack so far.

At 49 Degrees North near Chewelah, snow depth was 89 inches at the summit.

But the mountain snowpack is not as good as it might seem.

As of Jan. 22, the water equivalent in the snowpack was below normal across northeast Washington, North Idaho and western Montana.

The mountains of far North Idaho had a snowpack of 69 percent of normal.

From northeast Washington to Lookout Pass, the snowpack was at 77 percent of normal.

The best snowpack in the region was from Stevens County west to the Cascades where totals were at 98 percent of normal.

Oregon is particularly blessed with good snow totals a year after drought. All of the state had snowpacks above normal with the Oregon Cascades running at 130 percent of normal.