Weathercatch: Wild weather swings of 2022 go full circle

We just emerged from a year of remarkable bookend weather systems. At the beginning of 2022 and once again at its end, conditions catapulted from frigid cold and snow to rapid warm-ups with rain, mounds of slush and standing water.

A surge of arctic air kicked off January 2022, when the low temperature dipped to 1 degree in Spokane on Jan. 1 and the high nudged at 15. Two days later, the snow arrived, leaving 9 inches on the ground by Jan. 6.

Next, only a day later, the blanket of white turned into a watery mess after the temperature soared to 41 degrees and 0.37 inches of rain pelted the city along with gusty winds.

In a severe case of weather whiplash, from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, the temperature swung from 20 degrees below normal with snow and ice, to 6 degrees above normal with rain, slush and localized flooding.

Fast forward almost 12 months, when an arctic air mass blew through much of the Pacific Northwest during the week of Christmas.

Frigid temperatures bottomed out on Dec. 22, when Spokane saw a low of minus 10 degrees and a high of 4, making it the coldest date of 2022 in many parts of the Inland Northwest. In Pullman, the mercury plunged to an overnight low of minus 20.

The region also got several inches of snowfall.

Then, on Dec. 24, milder temperatures led to a mix of light snow, freezing rain and icy conditions.

Three days later, temperatures soared to 46 degrees on Dec. 27, and with it, more than a half-inch of rain that resulted in slush and localized flooding.

In less than a week, the weather swung from 31 degrees below normal with snow and ice to 12 degrees above normal with rain and a wet mess.

The see-saw pattern was surprisingly similar to early January 2022.

Abrupt weather swings from one pattern to another were relatively common throughout 2022, although not as extreme as those in January and December. We experienced long periods of unusually warm or cold temperatures with a sudden shift to opposite weather patterns.

So here we are in the heart of winter of a new year. The first half of January looks to be relatively mild, although unsettled, and nothing like the start and finish of 2022.

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.