Weathercatch: Looks like spring arrived early this year

The spring equinox begins this Saturday. Good. It’s been a year since the pandemic began, and we recently emerged from a February that was cold, windy and snowy. Many of us await spring sunshine with open arms.

Then again, signs of spring have been rapidly advancing in the Inland Northwest since the start of March. Overall, it has been mild and dry, with high temperatures in Spokane reaching 62 degrees on March 5 and 60 degrees on Saturday and Sunday of the past weekend. Beyond the peaks, we’ve mostly enjoyed temperatures in the low-to-upper 50s under blue skies and scattered white clouds.

During this springlike stretch of weather, temperatures have averaged about 3.7 degrees above normal for this time of year. Not only that, but it hasn’t snowed. And though some brief intervals of cooler weather (similar to Monday of this week when a passing cold front brought a high of 48 degrees and light scattered rain) are expected during the next two weeks, conditions don’t favor any measurable snowfall between now and April. A mix of rain and snow, perhaps, but no accumulating snow.

Should this pan out, it will mark only the 18th snowless March on record. To put this in perspective, measurable snow has fallen 111 years during this notoriously fickle month. The last times it didn’t snow in March were in 2010 and 1992. Therefore, if our region’s snow deficit persists through the month’s end, it will be unusual, indeed.

Do you happen to remember last March? More than a half-foot of snow fell in Spokane, nearly doubling its average snowfall for the month. The bulk of it fell during a cold snap on March 13-14, 2020, helping to close the month with 6.4 inches of snowfall, compared with the 3.5 inches we normally expect to see.

Although snowfall in late March occasionally happens, it’s rare. For it to occur between now and April 1, conditions would require a combination of precipitation and a more extensive chill than what models are forecasting.

So while astronomical spring may be just two days away, signs of the season have been budding across our region since March 1. And though some brief cool-downs and even a mix of rain and snow are possible, growing daylight and warming temperatures mean there’s slim potential for acute cold or accumulating snow.

Spring is here.

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Nic Loyd is a meteorologist in Washington state. Linda Weiford is a writer in Moscow, Idaho, who’s also a weather geek. Contact: ldweiford@gmail.com