A brief 2014 North Idaho weather review
January of 2014 was an unusually mild and almost snowless month until the very end of the 31-day period, when nearly a 'foot' of snow fell in Coeur d'Alene at my station on Player Drive. Temp-eratures dipped into the more seasonable teens and 20s after being in the upper 40s in mid January.
The second half of the winter of 2013-14 saw 50.4 inches of snow gauged in Coeur d'Alene, including a whopping 30.2 inches in February 2014, nearly triple the month's normal snowfall of 11.9 inches since 1895.
The winter's coldest morning was Feb. 6, when the mercury dipped to minus 8 degrees tying the record low for the date set back in 1929.
The spring of 2014 was wet and cool with nearly 10 inches of total precipitation gauged in town between late March and June 21, the first day of summer. A record for the date of 1.37 inches of rain was measured on June 3. Nearly half of the spring's rainfall, 4.60 inches, fell in June, which was likewise 3 degrees cooler than usual with no 90-degree afternoons.
We finished the 2013-14 snowfall season on June 30 with 67.2 inches, very close to the 118-year normal of 69.8 inches, thanks again to a very strong late January through early March six-week wintry cycle.
As predicted, the summer of 2014 was DRY and HOT with temperatures averaging some five degrees above normal through the third week of September. There were 30 'Sholeh Days' last summer with afternoon maximum readings of 90 degrees or higher. For the first time since 2009, we saw TRIPLE-DIGIT highs above 100 degrees in town on July 29 and again on July 31.
Only two inches of rain was measured in July and August combined, mostly from brief thunderstorm activity that barely affected outdoor fun. The weather for the annual North Idaho Fair and Rodeo was 'perfect,' not too warm and totally dry in late August.
As of this Dec. 26 writing, the fall and early winter of 2014 has been almost snowless. It's been rainy and mild locally since late October. Our 2014 rainfall was nearing 34 inches on Friday, 8 inches above normal.
NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS
Close, but no cigar.
Although we did see nearly an inch of snow accumulate locally in town on Wednesday, Christmas Eve Day, by late afternoon, however, most of the snow had melted in temperatures near 40 degrees at my station on Player Drive.
Christmas Day was mostly sunny with a bit colder temperatures. The ground was bare, except for leftover leaves and needles from a mild El Nino-enhanced fall season.
As I wrote this North Idaho update early Friday, skies were partly cloudy and it was quite chilly with morning lows in the mid 20s. The barometer was starting to fall in advance of a rather strong storm system from the North Pacific that was expected to bring us our first plowable snowfall of the winter of 2014-15. Moderate accumulations were expected by Saturday and Sunday across North Idaho. As much as 6 to 10 inches of the white stuff could fall in the lowlands with upwards of 12 to 16 inches of snow likely for the skiers and snowboarders in the nearby ski resorts.
Our long-range outlook calls for colder and mostly dry conditions through New Year's Day. Increasing snows will follow the coldwave and may even turn to rain as temperatures moderate between Jan. 6-10. Another Arctic blast, however, will bring additional snows and much colder temperatures again to the region between Jan. 17-22.
Stay warm. Enjoy the late-arriving snows, because the spring of 2015 should arrive early in March, especially if the mild El Nino in the tepid waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean holds on to life.
The 'good news' is that the next Christmas in 2015 has at least a 70 percent chance of being WHITE here in Camelot.
Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com