Weekend weather report: Region can expect a break from stormy, cold pattern

The stormy spring weather of the past several weeks appears to have ended for now with a high-pressure weather system moving over the Inland Northwest for mostly sunny and warmer weather.

High temperatures across the region will be moving into the 60s starting with the low 60s today.

Friday looks like it will be the warmest day of the stretch with highs in Spokane reaching about 68 degrees and 66 degrees in Coeur d’Alene.

Showers and heavy clouds are mostly absent from the forecast through about Tuesday.

Sandpoint and areas near the higher mountains might see some showers from a weak system crossing through the high pressure system on Friday night. Those areas will also see more clouds on Saturday and Sunday, and that includes the Silver Valley in Shoshone County.

Typical for this time of year, the warmest weather and the most sunshine will be found to the west and southwest.

Moses Lake could hit 70 degrees on Friday with temperatures dropping back to the middle and upper 60s on Saturday and Sunday.

The same goes for the Lake Roosevelt Recreation Area where highs on Friday should be near 70 but dropping to the middle and upper 60s on Saturday and Sunday.

Lows will hover between the upper 30s to 40s across the region.

The National Weather Service reported fresh snow of 3 to 6 inches in the mountains on Wednesday, the second time in two weeks that spring snow has covered the middle and upper slopes.

During a weather briefing earlier this week, forecasters said that the snow and cooler temperatures only added about 2 percent to a remaining snowpack that was at about 50 percent of normal in Northeast Washington and North Idaho.

However, forecasters said the fact that the weather systems stopped the melting of what has been a lean winter snowpack was good news in terms of preserving what water storage remains on the slopes.