It’s been a tough winter – everywhere but here
Where’s the snow? Well it’s definitely not in our neck of the woods.
El Niño’s influence seems to be playing out as expected here in the Northwest, with the warmer-than-normal temperatures keeping the snowfall amounts at bay. As of Jan. 20, The Spokane airport had seen only 11.9 inches of snow for the season – and only .5 inches of that in January. At this time last year, Spokane had 17.3 inches of snow for the month of January, though fortunately, the snow depth had been whittled down to about two inches thanks to a brief thaw during the second week of the month.
Coeur d’Alene is hardly seeing much more, 16.1 inches for the season compared to an average of 40.1 inches by this time. In fact, as of Jan. 14, the snowfall in Coeur d’Alene was the fifth-lowest amount ever seen for the first half of winter since 1895!
Fortunately, though we haven’t seen much snowfall, we haven’t been starving for precipitation. Snowpack across the North Idaho Panhandle is running on average about 80 percent of normal – could be better – but not looking dire at this point. Precipitation as a whole, for both Spokane and Coeur d’Alene is actually a bit above normal so far for 2010 and for the “water year,” October to October.
So while we have been basking in record warmth the last week (with temperatures in many locations making it into the 50s – nearly 20 degrees above normal), what has the rest of the U.S. been experiencing this winter? The crippling snowstorms in the Midwest have made news, as well as the record cold in the Southeast. On Jan. 10 Miami saw a high of only 48 degrees, and dropped to a chilly 35 that night, breaking the old record set in 1970.
That same week, folks in Atlanta, shivered with overnight lows in the teens. In the Midwest, Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City all have seen more snow than we have – two to three times their average amounts. The influence of El Niño has recently been fulfilling expectations in Southern California as well, where heavy storms have brought torrential rains and the resultant mudslides.
In the upcoming week, it looks like we are going to miss the worst of winter’s chills again, as another arctic outbreak is poised to dive into the Midwest and Southeast. Slightly above normal temperatures, with on again, off again, precipitation should keep some fresh snow up in the mountains.