Sunshine coming today

A dusting of snow blanketed the Inland Northwest this morning, but it’s not sticking around. Cloudy skies will give way to sunshine with a high around 40, according to the National Weather Service. Starting tonight, fog will dominate the weather through Thursday morning. Temperatures are expected to be fairly consistent with lows in the upper 20s and highs in the lower 40s throughout most of the week, according to the weather service. Friday could bring a slight chance of rain and snow. Weather during the month of January had some “big extremes,” said Bob Tobin, a meteorologist for the weather service. The area went from a strong storm track involving snow, with 7.5 inches on Jan. 5, to being socked in by fog because of a ridge of high pressure that hung over the area for several days. For 22 days, fog hung over Inland Northwest, according to climatology records. On 18 of those days, the visibility was less than a quarter mile. The coldest day in January was 8 below on the 3rd, the records show. The warmest day was 44 on Jan. 7. Neither were record breakers. The month was drier than normal, Tobin said. With 1.19 inches of precipitation, Spokane was .63 shy of normal.