Region may get real cold

While a few inches of snow could fall over the lowlands of the Inland Northwest starting on Friday, a greater weather threat may be lurking just beyond the weekend.

Forecasters on Wednesday said two low-pressure systems are expected to plunge southward from British Columbia starting on Friday.

They could bring two inches of snow, and possibly more, through the weekend. More snow is likely in the mountains, forecasters said.

After that there is a chance of extremely cold weather, the kind of cold that can freeze water pipes and cause frostbite.

Computer forecast models on Wednesday were predicting that a sizable arctic air mass will migrate from Siberia across the North Pole and southward across Canada, spilling into the Great Plains.

Some of the low-elevation cold could seep across the Rocky Mountains into North Idaho, the Spokane metropolitan area and the Columbia Basin.

“There is a distinct possibility of some very cold arctic-type temperatures,” said Matt Fugazzi, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Spokane. The question is, how cold will it get?

Computer forecast outlooks six or seven days in advance are often only partly accurate, he said.

However, it appears likely that cold air will arrive across the region Monday night and Tuesday, but it remains to be seen whether overnight temperatures will plunge below zero as they did last winter. “We just can’t get a grip on how cold now,” Fugazzi said.

The severe cold will likely cause snow storms and other extreme winter weather across large sections of the U.S., he said.