Tough winter here, abroad

With about a month officially left of winter, many feel that this season was one of the toughest in recent memory.

Nearly 72 inches of snow fell at Spokane International Airport, compared with a seasonal normal of slightly over 45 inches.

In parts of North Idaho, it was the snowiest winter in recorded history. From a region northwest of Coeur d’Alene through Rathdrum and Athol, between 130 and 160 inches of snow was measured. Earlier this month, about 7 feet of snow was removed from a school roof in Rathdrum to prevent a collapse of the structure.

I believe that we’ve turned the corner as far as this current winter season is concerned. However, don’t be too surprised to see one more round of snow between now and the end of the month. Conditions should start turning warmer in early- to mid-March as temperatures are expected to climb into the 50s, which would increase the chances of some area flooding.

The extreme winter conditions have not only affected the Inland Northwest, but other parts of the U.S. and the world. For example, rain, sleet and snow were seen in normally warm Palm Springs, Calif. Residents and tourists were shocked to see this wintry scenario after experiencing temperatures in the mid-80s just a few days prior. A mountainous road in San Diego County was closed due to the heavy snowfall.

Extreme weather has also been observed in the central and eastern parts of the country. There has been heavy snows near the Great Lakes this month. We just had one of the worst February outbreaks of tornadoes in the mid-South earlier this month – the worst in eastern Arkansas and western Tennessee with severe flooding in the Ohio Valley. Severe ice storms have also plagued Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Schools were closed in southern Illinois for the first time since the 1980s.

Although many are wondering when spring will finally arrive, we can be thankful that we don’t have to deal with the kind of temperatures like those in the north-central U.S. Last week, International Falls, Minn., plunged to an all-time record of minus-40 degrees Tuesday.

Arctic cold also gripped Europe late last month as records were shattered due to the extreme conditions. Subway tracks cracked in Vienna, Austria, and German authorities had to shut down a key canal after it iced up. Snow fell on Greece’s ancient Acropolis, and snow covered much of nearby Athens. One lake in Siberia, where temperatures dipped to an all-time low of minus 64, reported ice as much as 13-feet thick which killed most of the fish.

Even normally mild southern China has seen blizzard conditions making this one of the most severe weather seasons in over 800 years. Over 40 percent of China’s winter canola crop has been lost to cold, snow and ice.

Afghanistan has also observed rare blizzards this winter, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people. Snow was also seen in normally warm Baghdad, Cairo, Palermo, Sicily, Istanbul and Jerusalem.

But, in this cycle of wide weather extremes, after this cold and snowy winter, I wouldn’t be surprised to see summer temperatures soar to record levels as we go to the other side of the meteorological scale.