The 'Dust Bowl' years of the 1930s featured prolonged droughts and wide temperature 'extremes' in North Idaho

Many subscribers have asked me what type of weather conditions prevailed in North Idaho during the infamous 'Dust Bowl Days' in the nation's heartland during the 1930s.

I should begin by mentioning that our driest year on record in Coeur d'Alene was the year that the stock market crashed in 1929. Our town only gauged a mere 15.18 inches of precipitation in all of 1929, 11.59 less than our 117-year normal since 1895 of 26.77 inches.

November of 1929 was the driest November on record with just 0.05 inches of moisture the entire month. The winter of 1929-30 was the driest such period on record. Only 17.8 inches of snow fell that winter in town. The least snow ever in a single season since 1895 was the scant 11.2 inches which was gauged in 1933-34, likewise during the Dust Bowl Era.

The third driest year on record in Coeur d'Alene was observed in 1930 with a mere 17.49 inches of rainfall, just ahead of the second driest year in town since 1895 of 16.47 inches of precipitation in 1952.

The two-year period of 1929 and 1930 was the driest such 24-month span ever observed in Coeur d'Alene. Only 32.67 inches of moisture was gauged, just 5.90 inches more than we normally receive in town in a single calendar year.

This 1929-30 drought in the Inland Northwest set the stage for the 1930-39 'Dust Bowl Days' in many regions east of the Rockies as it pushed into the Great Plains and the Midwest joining up with a second drought pattern that backed-up into the nation's heartland from the southeastern U.S. in the early 1930s.

The years between 1934 and 1937 were likewise extremely dry across North Idaho averaging between 17.49 and 21.34 inches of precipitation in Coeur d'Alene.

Not only was the decade of the 1930s very dry in the Inland Empire, it featured a pattern of wide weather 'extremes' that produced blisteringly hot summers and exceptionally cold winter seasons with often gusty winds from the cold and dry Arctic regions. Strong high pressure was in firm control.

January of 1937 was the coldest January on record since at least 1895. It was the only month in the past 117 years to have an average minimum reading in Coeur d'Alene that was below zero at a frigid minus-2.29 degrees Fahrenheit. There were 19 subzero mornings in January 1937.

By extreme contrast, the summer of 1938 was the third hottest summer season since 1895. Only the torrid summers of 1961 and 1967 were hotter in Coeur d'Alene than the June through August period in 1938.

By the way, the decades of the 1930s, the 1960s and the 1980s were much warmer during the summer seasons than we've seen in the past two decades since 1990.

For example, the current soon-to-expire summer of 2012 did not produce even a single day with triple-digit temperatures, this despite 22 afternoons in July and August with above normal 'Sholeh Readings' at or above 90 degrees.

Our hottest afternoon this summer was 98 degrees on Aug. 19. Fortunately, the highly successful 2012 edition of the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo featured almost perfect weather, sunny skies and afternoon highs in the pleasant mid 70s to lower 80s.

Our winter seasons lately, although unusually snowy since 2007, have been generally quite mild with few, if any, subzero mornings and most afternoons near or above the freezing mark.

As I've frequently claimed, compared to the rest of the country, we live in weather-blessed 'Camelot.' Happy Labor Day!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

The Pacific storm system that was predicted to bring thunderstorms to North Idaho and the rest of the Inland Empire last Wednesday fell apart as it crossed the Cascade Mountains in western Washington, leaving our area bone dry, windy and a bit cooler late in the week.

Since July 20, as of this writing on Thursday, Aug. 30, we had observed only a single day with any measurable rainfall during the entire six-week span, the rather puny .23 inches from thunderstorms on Aug. 21.

With little, if any, measurable precipitation in sight through at least the first week of September, the summer dry spell of 2012 will be the longest in our part of the country since the inception of local area weather record-keeping in 1895. How ironic that it's followed the wettest spring season in recorded history in North Idaho.

The .23 inches is .04 inches less than the .27 inches which fell in Coeur d'Alene during a similar period in the 'Dust Bowl' year of 1934.

Normally in the month of August, we usually gauge 1.23 inches of moisture in town, a full inch above this August's final total.

Not only has it been extremely dry this mid to late summer of 2012, it's likewise been a couple of degrees warmer than usual with 22 'Sholeh Days' at 90 degrees or above since the first such day on July 7, when the mercury climbed to 93 degrees on Player Drive in northwestern Coeur d'Alene.

As things now stand, Randy Mann and I are still predicting a drier and slightly warmer than normal fall of 2012, at least through mid to late October.

But, if the current weak El Nino sea-surface temperature event in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean falls apart as some predict, November and December may turn wetter than normal again possibly pushing our 2012 rainfall total to near or above the all-time record of 38.77 inches gauged back in 1996. Remember, we're still in a long-standing cycle of WIDE WEATHER 'EXTREMES.' Believe it!

WHAT EXACTLY IS A 'BLUE MOON'?

A young Coeur d'Alene Press subscriber, Alia, who serves my wife Sharon and I each Saturday afternoon at Chili's, asked me to explain the term "Blue Moon" in my column.

Well, Alia, a "Blue Moon" occurs very rarely when there are two full moons, like we saw in August, during a single calendar month, hence the saying, "once in a blue moon." The next blue moon won't arrive until mid-2015.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email [email protected]