To get an accurate total, snow must be measured at least six times a day

As I said in a Dec. 10, 2007 article in 'Gems,' "if our precipitation falls as snow and collects on the ground as snow, it should be measured as snow" ... Harris law.

That's why I measure local snowfall on Player Drive every four hours, six times a day, even during the night. (At my age, I have to get up at least once anyway.)

If I only measured a couple of times a day, our total seasonal snowfall in Coeur d'Alene would drop about 15 to 20 percent. That's because we tend to have substantial melting, particularly from late January through mid April, during the normally mild daytime hours, when temperatures often reach the 40s after going into the 20s or lower at night.

I measure snow depths in my backyard away from the house, the trees, the fence or various other obstructions. I melt the snow in the microwave to get its moisture content.

It was more than 59 years ago on Feb. 22, 1952, at age 9, that I began keeping daily weather statistics and scrapbooks in Hamburg, N.Y., just south of snowy Buffalo on the eastern shores of Lake Erie. We were snowbound many times.

I took over the operation of the Hamburg weather station from my disabled grandfather, Warren Inskip, an amateur meteorologist and award-winning horticulturist with several large greenhouses that I also worked in at the time.

I have run various weather stations in the past six decades in upstate New York, California, Montana, Vermont and North Idaho, first in Hayden Lake in the early 1990s and, since August of 2003, locally in Coeur d'Alene on Player Drive in the northwestern corner of town in 'the trees.'

I have no plans to ever leave my beloved 'Camelot.' I will keep adding to the many scrapbooks, journals and charts in my ever-bulging file cabinets. I will never completely retire, health permitting.

I've collected thousands of weather articles and photos from around the world since 1952. Some of my charts, donated by the Weather Science Foundation of Crystal Lake, Ill., to me in 1978, date back to 600 B.C. Over the past 31 years, I've kept these various charts updated with the help of Randy Mann and Michelle Bos. Many of those long-term charts can be found on our website, www.LongRangeWeather.com.

All my work in climatology has led me to one strong conclusion. The global and local weather patterns are ALWAYS CHANGING. These cycles 'naturally' recur. They are not 'manmade.' Man just makes things worse, especially in the urban heat-island regions.

We should concentrate on cutting air pollution, levels of CARBON 'MONOXIDE,' not the vegetation-friendly levels of carbon 'dioxide.'

I'm all for 'going green' whenever possible. Clean water is a must. But, we should likewise protect our increasingly fragile economy.

Our seniors shouldn't have to choose between 'heating' and 'eating.'

NORTH IDAHO'S WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

During the 30 days from early February through early March, we had received, as of last Thursday at noon, more than two feet of snow on Player Drive in Coeur d'Alene, which brought our seasonal total for the winter of 2010-11 up to a whopping 108.8 inches, nearly 40 inches above what we normally measure during an entire winter season ending June 30 in town.

But, elsewhere in the region, snowfall totals in the past month have been much higher. For example, Bonners Ferry has gauged more than three feet of the white stuff since Feb. 15 alone. Lookout Pass, on the Idaho/Montana border, measured 6.5 feet of snow during the past 30 days, the most for any ski resort on the planet.

Local snowmobilers tell me that as much as "3 to 4 feet of powdery snow" remains on their favorite trails northeast of Coeur d'Alene, this despite several major thaws in late December, January and early February, our 'false spring' period.

One avid snowmobiler told me on Tuesday of this past week on March 1, "Cliff, it's like we've had two winters this 2010-11 season, one early in November and the first part of December and a second winter in mid to late February and early March."

Many of the area's lakes are "still choked with ice" after the recent cold snap that produced subzero temperatures in the region. They're "catching some big fish" in parts of northeastern Washington state and North Idaho through the ice, according to 'Fish Tips' in Thursday's Coeur d'Alene Press.

Below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation amounts during the next 30 days into early April should bring us another 10 to 20 inches of snow, pushing our 2010-11 seasonal total up to near or above 120 inches in Coeur d'Alene. Most of the area's ski resorts will top 320 inches of snow by the season's end on June 30.

Although we've seen two winters this season like 'snowy bookends,' spring is coming. This is a promise!

It may be late, but it will still be great. And, the summer with a weakening 'La Nina,' appears as if it will be both WARMER and DRIER than last year in our neck of the woods. Stay tuned.

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