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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

November warmer, drier than usual

Michelle Boss

It has been a cold, but relatively dry week across the Inland Northwest.

The sunshine has been welcome, though I’m sure the local ski resorts would like a little more in the way of contributions from Mother Nature. Though temperatures in the teens and 20s this time of year are no surprise for locals, the latest wintry blast has been a little bit harder to take in the southern U.S.

Snow fell earlier this week in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where they normally still see highs around 60 degrees this time of year. Wintry weather was even forecast as far south as Houston where average highs in early December are still in the upper 60s. When I was a child living there, I remember being let out of class just to witness the rare snowflake one year. Though milder temperatures should return to southern Texas over the weekend, bitter cold looks to be settling across the plains, as far south as Oklahoma, at least until the middle of this week.

A quick recap of our El Niño influenced November, shows our area came out on the warmer and drier side of normal. November temperatures were on average about 2 degrees above normal, while in Spokane, precipitation was below average by nearly an inch. Very little snow has been seen across Spokane or Coeur d’Alene until now, with just under 5 inches for both locations as of Dec. 3. On average, 8 to 9 inches of snow are seen by early December.

With that in mind, folks may wonder what our chances are of seeing a white Christmas this year. Looking back through nearly 130 years of weather data, Spokane has seen 61 Christmases with at least a trace of snow on the ground. That works out to slightly less than 50 percent. Coeur d’Alene has seen 81 white Christmases since 1895, working out to about 70 percent. Of course last year earned a tally mark in the white Christmas column, with 20-plus inches of snow piled up on the ground Dec. 25 in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas.

With the long-range computer models only going out 10 days, it is still too early to try to get a sneak peek on what the weather possibilities are for Christmas day this year. It’s possible for an El Niño Christmas to be white, as it only takes a little cold air and one little storm at the right time to set the scene.