Winter’s arrival strikes with a cold vengeance
According to the calendar, there are four seasons each year, with each season lasting three months. Though we like to brag in this part of the country that we get to enjoy all four seasons, I bet we would be hard pressed to find any spot in the U.S. where Mother Nature consistently adheres to the correct time table for seasonable weather.
The term autumn usually makes one think about welcome relief from the hot and dry summer, with damp mornings, cool afternoons and colorful leaves blowing down the streets. I don’t think we’ve seen any of that since mid-October. The last four weeks have brought us everything from damaging winds, freezing fog, flooding rains, bitter cold and, of course, a good dose of snow. Technically, winter doesn’t begin until Friday. If you ask me, winter started in November.
Last Monday and Tuesday, temperatures dipped into the single digits region wide. Spokane along with Hauser Lake dipped down to 7 degrees, Kellogg and Athol saw lows of 9 degrees, and Coeur d’Alene was as cold as 12 degrees. Average lows this time of year are in the mid-20s, while the record low for December in Coeur d’Alene is a bone-chilling 26 degrees below zero, recorded on Dec. 30, 1968.
We were able to reach such chilly lows recently, thanks to a fresh coating of snow on the ground in combination with light winds and clear skies. Earlier in the afternoon, however, evaporating snow put quite a bit of moisture into the air. What we ended up with in many spots was dense freezing fog that not only resulted in areas of poor visibility, but slick spots on the streets as well.
As dangerous as the combination of bitter cold and fog can be, I would have to say we fared much better than the folks in the nation’s midsection. We have been seeing snow across the area recently because temperatures have been below freezing not only at the surface, but all the way up to the clouds. When they’re not, and enough warm air gets sandwiched in between the cold layers just off the surface, you have the recipe for one of the worst winter storms, an ice storm. It happened here in November 1996, and recently became a winter nightmare for folks from Oklahoma northeast to Chicago this past week, with some of the worst conditions occurring in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Layers of ice brought down trees and power lines and made any type of travel, whether by foot or car, treacherous. Extensive damage was reported across the states, with more than a million people without power, and more than 15 storm-related fatalities in Oklahoma alone. What is even wilder is that in Oklahoma City, afternoon high temperatures just a week earlier were in the upper 60s.
Kudos must be given to the area National Weather Service forecasters, who first alerted emergency management officials to the potential of a severe winter storm a week in advance. The first winter storm watch was issued to the public 40 hours before the storm began. There is nothing you can do to keep the ice from coating everything around you, but there is plenty you can do with two days’ advance notice to have all your winter weather survival gear ready to go.
Though area ski resorts got off to a slow start this season due to a lack of snow, recent storms will definitely push the December snow totals in Coeur d’Alene above the average of 19.3 inches. If you’re yearning for an even bigger helping of the white stuff, not to worry, as January is usually the snowiest month of the year.