Ready for rain?
<p>Vincent Juarez, 12, plays along the shoreline of the beach at North Idaho College as his friends, James Ashline, 12, and Grace Ashline, 2, wade in the water Wednesday.</p>
Hopes for a week of sunshine are all wet. The next several days will see a series of thundershowers and cold winds sweeping in from the Gulf of Alaska, said climatologist Cliff Harris. "We could get as much as a half inch of rain out of those systems, which we can use," Harris said.
Hopes for a week of sunshine are all wet.
The next several days will see a series of thundershowers and cold winds sweeping in from the Gulf of Alaska, said climatologist Cliff Harris.
"We could get as much as a half inch of rain out of those systems, which we can use," Harris said.
On top of that, Harris forecasted that with the cold fronts drifting in - unusually cool for this time of year - lows over the next few nights could drop into the low 30s, leaving frost behind.
"We may have to cover some tomatoes," he said.
Enjoy it while it lasts, he added.
Once summer arrives, a high pressure ridge will park over the area and go to work on baking Kootenai County, he said.
"We'll start heating up and drying out," Harris said. "For July and August, I believe the total rainfall put together will probably be somewhere between an inch and an inch and a half."
That means dry forests, he said.
Although the region has accumulated just over 11 inches of precipitation so far this year, he said, he wouldn't mind seeing more downpours to prevent fires this summer.
"I'm hoping these rains continue another two or three weeks, to put some more deposits in our moisture bank," he said. "Because we're going to need that."