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| Cliff Harris |
If La Nina holds on, we may see 100 inches or more of snow
By the time one reads this article on Monday, we should have seen our 2007-08 season -to-date snowfall approach a whopping 85 inches in Coeur d'Alene with more than 100 inches gauged this harsh winter to the north around Twin Lakes and Sandpoint, amongst other areas.
This winter has a good chance of reaching 100 inches in town at my station on Player Drive. Only eight other seasons since 1894-95 measured more than 100 inches of the white stuff, the last time being the snowy winter of 1996-97, 11 years ago.
Not only has it been a whiter winter than the normal 66.7 inches for an entire July 1 to June 30 season, but it's likewise been quite frigid overall (This "global warming" is killing us!).
Most of this past week, we saw daily highs in the lower 20s and morning lows near the zero mark with readings as low as -13 degrees on Jan. 23 at Mark Dymkoski's place, some three miles east of Twin Lakes. It was -9 degrees on Jan. 21 at Deer Park north of Spokane, but that was a far cry from the bone-chilling -32 degrees at Butte, Mont.
Thus far this "fickle" winter of 2007-08, we've either been much milder than usual with rapid thawing conditions or in Ma Nature's "icebox." There have been more than 40 afternoons this season when the mercury failed to surpass the freezing mark. That's more than double the normal number of such frigid days to date in a typical Coeur d'Alene "banana belt" winter.
Whether or not we do reach the magic 100-inch mark this season in total snowfall for the Coeur d'Alene area will depend upon just what happens in the next 90 days or so with the cool, moist "La Nina" sea-surface temperature event in the tepid waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The long-range prognostication that Meteorologist Randy Mann and I made months ago, which featured a very cold and snowy winter of 2007-08 in the Inland Empire -- global warming or no global warming -- was based upon La Nina remaining active during the entire season. This has happened.
In the past couple of months, we've seen a series of more than 30 storms, some of them powerful, push through the Inland Northwest, the northern Rockies, the Great Plains and especially across the eastern Great Lakes and much of New England where some stations have seen the snowiest December/January combined 62-day period in at least 400 years!
And, as Yogi Berra reportedly said, "it's not over 'til it's over." Amen, Yogi. Amen.
Randy's latest sea-surface temperature chart featured with the column still shows a wide stretch of much-cooler than-normal waters in the Equatorial regions just west of the Americas.
This rather long-lived La Nina appeared late last fall to be weakening, but now it's actually showing signs of strengthening again. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this strongest La Nina since at least 1998, hang onto life until the mid-summer period or even longer.
If "Gina La Nina" doesn't fade away too soon, we should continue to see WIDE WEATHER "EXTREMES'" across the North American continent, including North Idaho, through the spring months of April, May and most of June.
It's likely that precipitation totals will run as much as 30 to 60 percent above the usual levels in our part of the country between now and June 20. As I've said many times lately, our drought in Camelot is over. Right now, I'm more concerned about spring flooding problems from rapidly melting snows and torrential rains than I am about extreme dryness.
Even the summer season will probably be at least TWICE AS WET as during the past two bone-dry summers of 2006 and 2007 in the region. I'll have more details on this outlook next week.
In the meantime, stay warm and safe in these snowy, icy and frigid mid-winter days. Remember folks, spring is just around the corner. The days are getting longer.
Before we know it, there will be flowers popping up and lawns to mow. In fact, we may see readings in the lower 60s by early to mid March as the season comes in a bit early just ahead of more cold, wet weather.
