Cold Air Moves Into The Region

Thu., Nov. 9, 2000

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

All of the hot air from Tuesday night’s election wasn’t enough to ward off the first blast of winter cold this season.

Wet snow blanketed the Inland Northwest Wednesday to depths of three or four inches in many locations.

Don’t expect it to melt away soon.

A cold Canadian air mass will howl into the region today, , creating wind chills in the below-zero range, forecasters said.

“We’re just cold,” said Rocky Pelatti, of the National Weather Service in Spokane. “It’s definitely unseasonable for November.”

A warm-up isn’t forecast until Monday at the earliest.

The snow came from a cold low-pressure area that deepened and swirled over Eastern Washington and North Idaho once it arrived from British Columbia on Wednesday morning.

Three inches of snow fell at Spokane International Airport while Coeur d’Alene and Deer Park each had 1.5 inches.

Cities in the Columbia Basin west of Spokane reported up to four inches. Moscow had four inches, and Priest Lake had three inches.

For the most part Wednesday, temperatures hovered just above freezing, preventing icing of roadways through the evening rush hour.

“It doesn’t seem to be sticking to the streets,” Pelatti said just after nightfall Wednesday.

Lows are forecast in the mid-20s this morning, which is cold enough to create patches of ice on roads, forecasters said.

Highs today won’t be much warmer than that. The forecast calls for a maximum temperature of 26 in Spokane and 24 in Coeur d’Alene.

The cold air from the north is expected to push into the region with some force today. Winds out of the northeast are forecast at 15 to 25 mph.

Higher gusts of up to 35 mph are expected on the Rathdrum Prairie and in Coeur d’Alene.

With the combination of cold in the mid-20s and winds at 25 mph, the wind chill effect on the skin is equivalent to a temperature of minus7 degrees.

The low Friday morning is forecast to drop to 14 degrees in Spokane and 12 degrees in Coeur d’Alene.

The forecasted low for Spokane Friday is only three degrees above the daily record of 11 degrees set on Nov. 10, 1986.

Normal lows for the second week of November are about 30 degrees overnight. Daytime highs normally are about 43 degrees.

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