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| Cliff Harris |
'Microclimates' make life interesting
As pointed out by our Press subscribers, scenic North Idaho, with its lakes, mountains and valleys, hosts a variety of different climates within a relatively small area. With its four distinct seasons, many observers have reported temperature and precipitation figures that greatly vary from the so-called 'official reporting stations' used by the National Weather Service.
These 'microclimatic' divergences between one area and the next are basically caused by 'topographical' features including latitude, longitude and, of course, altitude, which often dictates amounts of snowfall and precipitation throughout Idaho and the rest of the Inland Empire. The proximity to WATER, especially large bodies like Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Fernan, Hayden Lake, Lake Pend Oreille and others, also results in wide climatic differences in neighboring regions of the state. For example, during the summer months, residents near Lake Coeur d'Alene and other lakes often experience milder nights and cooler days due to the moderating effects from the huge bodies of water. Readings may differ as much as 3-5 degrees from inland locations.
During the winter season, however, towns away from Lake Coeur d'Alene have been as much as 10-20 degrees COLDER during the nighttime hours. For example, Twin Lakes, a part of Rathdrum, sits in a tiny valley where cold air will often settle resulting in much more frigid conditions than in slightly higher areas.
Within a wide range of at least 27 individual 'microclimates' that I've recently identified, snowfall amounts across the region vary significantly. Towns near or in mountain locations usually receive approximately DOUBLE the amount of snow in the winter months compared to areas at lower elevations. Even below 2,500 feet, there have been many instances when downtown Coeur d'Alene near the lake received only 'traces' of the white stuff, while just a few miles away, as much as 3-6 inches of snow has been gauged at the other Coeur d'Alene weather station in the northwestern corner of town on Player Drive.
The beauty of North Idaho lies in its diversity, climatewise and otherwise. One can find almost any type of weather one desires in this 21st Century 'CAMELOT.'
LOCAL NORTH IDAHO LONG-RANGE WEATHER OUTLOOK
Friday's precipitation patterns across North Idaho certainly pointed out that we have many 'microclimates' in very close proximity to one another.
While severe street flooding was occurring in some areas, other weather stations in the region were reporting only a few scattered light showers.
The heaviest downpours were noted near the Silver Lake Mall and on Player Drive in the northwestern corner of Coeur d'Alene, where this climatologist measured a record rainfall for June 17 of a whopping 1.17 inches, of which 0.64 inches was gauged in less than an hour during the late afternoon. Less than 10 miles away in Lake Fernan, only 0.30 inches was measured for the entire storm, even less in downtown Coeur d'Alene.
Believe it or not, at my station on Player Drive, another 0.29 inches of rain fell in a brief, but heavy, thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon. This deluge pushed our monthly precipitation total up to a far above normal 2.93 inches, great news for the region's 'moisture bank,' but hardly appreciated by the 'Car d'Lane' folks cruising the city and then getting 'soaked to the skin' just outside area restaurants.
But, even the short-term outlooks are featuring more 'seasonable' temperatures by mid-week in the upper 80s and lower 90s just ahead of this weekend's IRONMAN competition. There may be, however, another low pressure trough and the risk of more thunderstorms by this last weekend of June. YES, Jack, so goes Ma Nature, particularly in North Idaho.
We're hoping that Lake Coeur d'Alene will warm up to at least 65 degrees by this weekend, but that would still mean much colder water temperatures than the 70 degrees in 2004 and 72 degrees in 2003. Hypothermia will be 'slowing the swimmers down,' according to the folks at Kootenai Medical Center.
Longer-term, I'm still looking for afternoon temperatures to reach the mid-to-upper 90s locally by Independence Day or shortly thereafter. We may even 'flirt' with TRIPLE-DIGIT READINGS by the middle to the end of July's normally HOT 'full moon' phase between July 21 and July 28.
We will likely be glad that we had our wet spring by early August. The six-week span from June 28 through August 9 may actually turn out to be not only WARMER than usual for the first half of summer, but DRIER as well. Only time will tell....
I'll have more details on the expected delightful Summer of 2005 weather patterns in next week's 'Gems.'
