Storms Expected To Cut Through The Fog Despite El Nino, Weather To Seem A Little More Wintry

Driving through thick fog can be nerve-wracking.

Getting a flight out of the airport on days like Wednesday can be downright frustrating.

El Nino is at it again.

The persistent fog that’s plagued the Inland Northwest this week comes from the El Nino-altered flow of storms off the Pacific Ocean, scientists say.

Most storms this season have been shunted to the north and south of the region, leaving the Pacific Northwest under recurring high pressure and calm air.

Without storms and wind to mix the atmosphere, cold settles along the ground, allowing fog to form in the moisture-laden chill, weather experts said.

This is the down side of the mild winter being brought to you by El Nino.

But the Inland Northwest may get a reprieve from the fog starting today.

Forecasters said a series of low-pressure systems is expected to come ashore through the weekend.

They aren’t especially strong, but they should pack enough storminess to clear up the fog and drop an inch or so of snow, said Mark Strobin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Spokane.

Still, the main energy from these cold fronts will move to the north and south, he said.

“Most of the systems have been splitting by the time they reach the coast,” Strobin said. “It’s typical during an El Nino year.”

The change in weather could start out as rain today, but cooling in the atmosphere will quickly switch it to snow, he said.

Temperatures are forecast to fall back into the 20s. Snow is expected for the mountains, although accumulations are not going to be heavy, the weather service said.

The mild weather and fog this season hardly compare with the pre-New Year’s period a year ago.

In 1996, the waters of the tropical Pacific were colder than normal in what scientists sometimes call La Nina, the opposite of El Nino.

Spokane had 42.7 inches of snow in December 1996, setting an all-time snowfall record for the month.

Another 20 inches fell in October and November 1996, building a huge early snowpack around the region.

Then, a strong storm on New Year’s Eve brought rain and winds, melting the low-elevation snowpack and unleashing flood waters in streams and rivers around Spokane.

This winter, streams are low, and the ground is bare in most parts of the region. Only 11 inches of snow has been recorded in Spokane as of Jan. 1.

Spokane gets an average of 21.7 inches of snow by New Year’s Day.

The snowpack in the mountains a year ago was nearly twice as deep as normal by the end of December. Priest River in North Idaho had nearly four feet of snow on the ground. This year, the mountain snowpack is about two-thirds of normal.

, DataTimes