An Early Winter Predicted Ewu Professor Says There Will Be Plenty Of Snow

An Eastern Washington University professor who last year correctly predicted a late-but-severe winter says snow is going to fall early this time around.

“I’m looking for an early season of snow, with a lot of snow in the mountains,” said geography professor Bob Quinn, who studies long-range climate trends.

His prediction comes after the Inland Northwest’s wettest October since 1950.

The same weather pattern that brought the rain last month is expected to continue through late December, he said.

More than 3.25 inches of rain fell last month, bringing the year’s total to 17 inches, more than 5 inches above normal through the end of October.

The National Weather Service also recorded 1.5 inches of snow at the airport last month.

The excess moisture, Quinn said, is why trees in Spokane are at least a week later than normal in dropping their leaves.

Trees are not suffering from moisture stress this year, a condition common in Spokane’s dry climate. Lack of moisture causes leaves to turn color and drop sooner than normal, Quinn said.

The lingering autumn color has forced the city of Spokane to postpone by one week its annual pickup of leaves from streets.

Street maintenance supervisor Larry Neil said crews will start leaf routes in northwest Spokane on Monday and then work their way onto the South Hill later in the month. They will follow the same pattern of pickups as in past years, he said.

Originally, the city had scheduled crews to start the job last Monday.

A year ago, Quinn studied ocean-surface temperatures and weather trends and predicted that winter would be late in arriving, but severe once it did.

Spokane saw a lot of snow and record-setting cold in January and early February.

This fall, he said, a pool of cold ocean water west of the Aleutian Islands is generating strong storm activity. Those storms are bumping into an area of warmer water in the central Pacific, which adds energy to the storms, but also pushes them into the Gulf of Alaska.

As a result, Pacific storms coming ashore in Washington state are flowing out of the colder ocean waters of the gulf and British Columbia coastline. That is a storm track that typically brings snow to the Inland Northwest during cold-weather months, Quinn said.

This prevailing storm track should continue for another six to eight weeks, Quinn said. After that, he said he is not making any predictions about the trend into late winter.

The El Nino warming of ocean temperatures in the tropics has subsided over the past two years, he said. El Nino is believed to cause mild winters in the Northwest, but its presence is gone.

The National Weather Service long-range outlook for the winter calls for near-normal temperatures and near-normal precipitation.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Fall leaf pickup schedule City of Spokane crews will begin clearing leaves off streets starting Monday in the Audubon neighborhood. Officials again this year want residents to move their cars off streets while crews are in their areas. The city is only collecting leaves that fall naturally into the street, and residents are asked not to rake yard leaves into the streets. Here is the schedule for pickups: Audubon area, Monday and Tuesday. Downriver area, Tuesday through Thursday. Northwest Boulevard area, Nov. 11 through Nov. 14. Corbin Park, Nov. 17 and 18. West Central area, Nov. 18 through Nov. 20. Browne’s Addition, north-south streets, Nov. 21. Browne’s Addition, east-west streets, Nov. 22. Cannon Hill, Nov. 22 and 23. Manito Park, Nov. 23 through Nov. 26. Hamblin area, Dec. 2 and 3. Comstock area, Dec. 4 through Dec. 9. Rockwood area, Dec. 4 and 5. Liberty and Lincoln areas, Dec. 6 and 7. Gonzaga University area, Dec. 7 through Dec. 9.