Winter weather is coming – at least for a little while

Spokane is about to get its first taste of real winter weather this season.

The National Weather Service predicts about 2 inches of snowfall in Spokane over the weekend, followed by 3 to 4 inches early next week.

Spokane’s total snowfall in December – 11.8 inches – was already below normal, then warm temperatures melted it away.

That shouldn’t be the case this time. Next week’s snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures.

“We’re going to see several rounds of precipitation, including snow, and then we will transition to colder temperatures and some windy conditions next week,” said Charlotte Dewey, an NWS meteorologist .

How cold might those temperatures be? Opening the weather app on a cellphone gives a good picture, Dewey said, but not an exact one. It isn’t unusual for forecasts, especially ones further out, to fluctuate. The forecasts are constantly changing, but temperatures hovering at 0 Fahrenheit or colder have been a fixture for late next week.

Still, “the overall trend is that we will be rapidly cooling down, so we’ll see much colder temperatures,” she said. “It looks like our coldest days next week could be Wednesday through Saturday, and that’s where we’ll see those temperatures be probably below freezing for the daytime temperatures.”

But this taste of winter weather may be just that: a taste. After the snow and a brief cold period, mild winter weather is expected to continue.

“By that following weekend, we’ll likely see temperatures rebound and become more mild,” Dewey said.

December 2023 was Spokane’s 13th-warmest December since recordkeeping began in 1881. The average temperature last month was 34.6 degrees, compared to the normal average temperature for December of 29.1 degrees.

November brought 0.8 inches of snowfall, compared to the month’s average 6.2 inches.

Spokane isn’t alone in experiencing an underwhelming winter. Cities from as far away as Minneapolis have had relatively warm temperatures, and ski resorts throughout the Northwest have felt the impacts of diminished snowfall.

Dewey said the situation isn’t surprising, given that weather patterns are in the El Niño period of the climate cycle, which means warmer, drier weather for the Northwest.

“It does make sense that the northern half of the country is seeing below-normal snow and below-normal precipitation. That’s very typical of the El Niño pattern,” she said.