Forecasters predict Christmas will come with nary a flake

Wed., Dec. 22, 2004

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

If you’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas, that’s probably as close as you are going to get to the real thing in the Spokane area this holiday.

Forecasters are calling for snow-free conditions.

“It looks like it’s going to be pretty much dry right through Friday,” said Tracy Cox, forecaster for the National Weather Service office in Spokane.

The forecast is good news for travelers, who are likely to encounter clear roads with only areas of nighttime fog. Temperatures will range from the upper teens to mid-20s at night to the low- to mid-30s during the day in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas. Clouds and periods of sun are expected through the holiday with a small chance of snow forecast later in the weekend.

The weather service said Spokane has a 57 percent chance of having an inch or more of snow on the ground on any given Christmas, and a 34 percent chance of snowfall on Christmas Day.

The last time any snow covered the ground on Christmas in Spokane was in 2001 when a mere 2 inches of older snow had accumulated. There were 7 inches on the ground in 2000.

For white Christmas romantics, one of the best years had to have been 1998 when 5 inches of new snow fell on the holiday.

Kellogg, Idaho, on Tuesday had an inch of snow, but other weather stations in the region reported none.

So far this season, 8 inches of snow has been recorded at Spokane International Airport, the region’s official weather reporting site. That is about half of the average of 16.5 inches for the season through Dec. 21.

An emergence this year of El Nino warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean has caused climatologists to predict below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures in the Inland Northwest this fall and winter.

So far, weather patterns have mirrored that prediction. El Nino typically guides storms away from the Inland Northwest.

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