Getting The Cold Shoulder Record Overnight Low Temperatures Are Forecast As Spring Refuses To Take Region Into Balmy Embrace

Even though this is the weekend when clocks are supposed to “spring forward,” the weather still has the distinct feel of winter.

Forecasters are calling for record cold near 22 degrees tonight. The record low is 25 degrees for April 5 and 26 degrees for April 6.

The high today should only reach 46, with 48 expected in Spokane on Sunday.

“It certainly isn’t very warm if you want to sit out sun-tanning,” said National Weather Service forecaster Daran Rife.

“Cold air is in place and it’s not going to be going anywhere.”

Daylight savings time starts at 2 a.m. Sunday.

People itching for spring weather might consider their indoor options.

One of those is the Spokane Home and Garden Show, which opened Friday at the downtown Convention and Ag Trade Center and runs through 5 p.m. Sunday.

There are scores of commercial displays where homeowners can look over products and dream about the next big project.

On Friday, exhibitors such as certified arborist Joseph Zubaly were talking spring, despite the wintry feel outside.

Zubaly, who prunes and repairs trees for a living, said the cold weather will delay the flow of sap in trees so property owners can continue to prune live limbs this weekend.

He said dead or broken branches could be removed at any time, but pruning of larger limbs should be curtailed while trees are growing their new leaves. Pruning can be resumed once the leaves have matured later in the spring, he said.

Elsewhere at the show, Kathy Thompson was staying toasty across the aisle from a fireplace stove display.

Thompson runs the Blue Iris Water Gardens, a 2-year-old retail business at 8003 E. Cataldo.

She sells liners, pumps, hoses, plants and accessories for water gardens. One of her specialties: imported Japanese koi fish. They aren’t cheap. The small koi sell for $25 apiece.

“They are just wonderful fish,” she said.

Her display includes a wagon filled with water, plants, koi and a turtle figure spouting a stream of water.

With the cold outside, Thompson said she was happy to be at the show meeting potential customers. Besides, there’s plenty of time to plant a garden, she said.

First, the snow has to stop falling.

Zubaly said he had an inch of snow Friday morning at his home at Hauser Lake in North Idaho.

Nearly an inch of snow fell at the National Weather Service office near Airway Heights and as much as six inches of new snow fell at mountain ski resorts.

Forecasters said the cold probably won’t let up until the middle of next week, when the highs are expected to creep back into the 50s by Wednesday.

Normal temperatures for this time of year in Spokane are 53 for the high and 33 for the low.

A low of 23 degrees is forecast for Coeur d’Alene, which would tie the record for April 6. Lows in the teens are expected in some valleys.

Rife said the Inland Northwest is being overrun by frigid air moving southward from the Yukon and British Columbia.

A deep low pressure area over the Rockies combined with high pressure in the North Pacific and Alaska has caused the unseasonably cold northerly flow.

But the air from the north is relatively dry, compared to the normal flow off the Pacific Ocean. Sunny skies are expected today and Sunday.

“I don’t mind the cold, as long as the sun is out,” Rife said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo