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Short snow showers expected during Monday commute, with windy afternoon

Snow collects on a traffic signal on the corner of Bernard Street and 29th Avenue, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, in Spokane. About an inch of snow is expected in the morning on Monday, but will likely melt as temperatures rise in the afternoon. (DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Emma Epperly emmae@spokesman.com(509) 459-5122

About an inch of snow is expected to fall in Spokane on Monday, but as the day warms, a windy afternoon will likely prevent an icy evening.

“If the timing holds true, we may get our commute in before we get a lot of this snow developing,” said Greg Koch, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Spokane. “At this point it looks like we’re going to have some light snow develop around 7 a.m. and some of that may linger until about noon.”

While snow will likely fall all morning, commuters should only be slightly concerned if they have to take side streets or untreated roadways, Koch said.

“It’s going to warm up close to 40 degrees tomorrow afternoon with some winds gusting out of the southwest,” Koch said. “So the little amount of the snow we get in the early-to-middle part of the day will be melting away by the time we get into the afternoon.”

Gusts of about 35 miles per hour are expected in the West Plains and parts of the South Hill, Koch said, but that’s nothing unusual in Spokane.

“We see that magnitude of wind pretty regularly in the Spokane area,” he said.

The wind will also likely prevent the precipitation from early in the day from refreezing and impacting the evening commute, Koch said.

“With as much wind as we are going to have tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening, I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot of potential for refreeze,” he said.

In the Cascade Mountains, about 4 to 8 inches of snow are forecast, Koch said.

Snoqualmie Pass likely won’t be significantly impacted, Koch said, but Stevens Pass might see “more significant travel impacts.” The majority of the snow accumulation Monday will be above 3,000 feet, he said. Lookout Pass has the potential for 2 to 5 inches of snow, which is common but could cause “brief periods of treacherous travel,” Koch said.

The rest of the first week of December looks dry, with high temperatures in the 30s to possibly low 40s, he said.

“We are going into a prolonged period of seasonally cool but stable conditions,” Koch said.