Cliff Harris

I've had several calls and e-mails from unhappy snow-loving fans of all ages concerning the almost total lack of the white stuff this 'open' winter of 2009-10. We've had just 2.7 inches of snow since January and only 17.8 inches for the season.

They are disappointed in not being able to use their Christmas gift sleds and, believe it or not, their new, but dusty, snowblowers. By contrast, though, area golfers are 'elated,' and the city of Coeur d'Alene has saved lots of money not plowing.

Many elementary students are reportedly upset because there are no exciting snowstorms to name and no snowballs fights on the playgrounds.

I give them my standard response that, "I'm not in 'PRODUCTION,' I'm only in 'SALES.' But, that seems to only enhance their utter frustration, at me and Mother Nature.

One young fellow, about 10 years old I guess, asked me if I was "bored with the weather" after having little to write or talk about since the snows suddenly stopped at the end of last December.

I told him that I welcomed not having to write almost daily articles for the Press and other publications like I was asked to do during the two snowiest winter seasons back-to-back in Kootenai County and Coeur d'Alene history in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Remember, we gauged an incredible 172.9 inches of snow in town in 2007-08 and another 145.6 inches in 2008-09. The combined 24-month snowfall total of a whopping 318.5 inches was more than 100 inches greater than the 217.6 inches combined total snowfall of 1915-16 which had 124.2 inches and the following winter of 1916-17 that gauged 93.4 inches.

But, I can still remember when I was just 9 years old in Hamburg, N.Y., south of snowy Buffalo during the warm and rainy winter of 1951-52, when I couldn't use my new Christmas skis due to the lack of the white stuff. I scraped the bottoms of those wooden skis "to ribbons of slivers" trying to ski down the rocky embankments of the New York Central Railroad tracks.

The usual snowballs at school became 'iceballs' that turned into very dangerous and painful weapons when thrown by playful, and subsequently angry, fourth-graders. (I was hit in the eye, but I got Gary in the mouth.)

When it finally did snow in Hamburg in mid-February of 1952, I was overjoyed! I watched the pretty, large, wet snowflakes reflecting in the street lights until about 3 a.m. one morning and was up about 7 a.m. to try out my rutted skis on 'real snow.' I had the time of my life!

The next week in school, my teacher, Mrs. McEwen, caught me watching the snow through the barely-frosted windows and warned me to "pay attention or else."

About 10 minutes later, I found out just "what else" meant. Mrs. McEwen told me to "go outside and enjoy the snow" while my classmates watched from inside hoping that I would 'shiver in the cold.'

I can still see them making faces at me, but I didn't care. I was 'in heaven' catching snowflakes with my tongue and throwing snowballs back at the 'little monsters' with their faces pressed against the steamed-up windows.

The teacher soon called me back into the classroom, because "I was having too much fun, instead of being punished."

My love of snow led me to start my 58-year career in weather-scrapbooking on George Washington's Birthday, Feb. 22, 1952, a week or so after my '30 minutes in wonderland.'

I'm writing this article on Monday evening, Feb. 22, after finishing the pasting of several articles into my 93rd scrapbook started on July 1, 2009.

I can't wait for next winter. The boy inside me is CRYING FOR SNOW!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

It was only a 'skiff' of snow that fell early Wednesday morning, 0.3 inches to be exact, but it was just enough to top the scant 0.2 inches of the white stuff in February 2005 which remains the most snowless February ever, at least since the inception of local Coeur d'Alene weather record-keeping in 1895.

But, the 57-day span from Dec. 31, 2009, through this writing, Thursday, Feb. 25, remains the most snowless such winter period on record with just 2.7 inches, 2.4 inches in January and the 0.3 inches of snow that we gauged on Wednesday.

The previous least snowfall ever measured locally in town in the same 8-week period in mid-winter was 5.5 inches in 1933-34, more than double the puny amount that 2009-10 produced through Feb. 25.

As I told staff writer Alecia Warren on Wednesday, this open winter is the 'YING' to the 'YANG' of the Olympic-sized snows that we received during the past two winter seasons, when an all-time record 172.9 inches fell in 2007-08 and 145.6 inches in 2008-09 last winter, when we saw many roof collapses including our sunroom on Player Drive in northwest Coeur d'Alene.

Our 17.8 inches of snow since last October ties 1929-30 for the eighth least snowfall for a given season from October through June 30. However, I still see perhaps another 6-10 inches of snow between now and mid-April, which would put us at between 23 and 27 inches or more by season's end. That would mean that 2009-10 could see the 16th least seasonal snowfall since 1895, still a 'piece of cake' winter overall and a far cry from the last two harsh winters.

Longer-term, I still see a rather cool and wet spring season and a DRY and HOT summer with less precipitation than normal due to a strong stationary ridge of high pressure over the Inland Empire.

I'll have more details next week.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. E-mail sfharris@roadrunner.com