The current 'global weirding' weather will persist

The Dec. 29 issue of Time magazine, page 46, predicted "CLIMATE STRANGE" ahead in the next several years, a pattern of WIDE WEATHER 'EXTREMES' that I've been forecasting for decades in the Coeur d'Alene Press and other sources.

The article, written by Bryan Walsh, said to "forget 'global warming' and get ready for 'global weirding.'" I certainly wouldn't argue that climatological assumption to say the least.

Just in the past few weeks, we've seen a near-record cold month of November with all-time record SEVEN FOOT SNOWFALLS in my hometown of Hamburg, N.Y. south of Buffalo.

By extreme contrast, we've also seen record warmth in mid to late December that melted off all the snow, even at the higher elevations in the Northeast at the ski resorts.

Last winter, thanks to a strong, cold 'polar vortex,' saw 91 percent of the Great Lakes freeze over by the beginning of March, the second largest extent of ice in more than four decades.

Up north, along the U.S./Canada border, there were more than 100 mornings between November and mid March with subzero temperatures. The winter of 2013-14 was the coldest in 200 years in some parts of North Dakota and Manitoba.

While much of the country east of the Rockies last winter saw much below normal temperatures and above normal amounts of snow, by extreme contrast, drought-parched California had its warmest and driest winter on record, a great example of 'global weirding.'

It remains the firm climatological opinion of yours truly that the next decade or so will see a pattern nationwide of long, cold and often snowy winter seasons, followed by short, hot summers with widespread drought conditions that probably will result in a GLOBAL FAMINE sometime prior to late 2018 or early 2019, maybe even sooner in parts of Africa, Asia and the Mideast.

If we do see a chilly 'LA NINA' sea-surface temperature event develop in the waters of the east-central Pacific Ocean at the same time that the sun goes into a 200-year cycle of hibernation, RECORD SNOWS COULD FALL IN NORTH IDAHO and the surrounding areas of the Inland Empire before the year 2020. As much as 200 inches of the white stuff in Coeur d'Alene could break our all-time record snowfall of 172.9 inches set back in 2007-08, when many buildings collapsed in the region. Stay tuned for further updates.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

We finished 2014 with a healthy 33.67 inches of total precipitation, nearly seven inches above our 120-year normal moisture in Coeur d'Alene of 26.77 inches. In 2013, we were a bit below normal moisturewise in town at 25.93 inches.

Our December 2014 precipitation at 4.02 inches was slightly above the normal of 3.90 inches since 1895. In 2013, we gauged just 2.06 inches of moisture in December.

Our snowfall for the year in Coeur d'Alene at my station on Player Drive was 64.9 inches, just a tad less than 5 inches below the normal since 1895 of 69.8 inches. However, the January through March snowfall in 2014 was 16.7 inches above normal at 56.3 inches. The total snowfall in 2013 was 43.2 inches, far below the 120-year normal snowfall of 69.8 inches.

Our 2015 outlook for total precipitation across the Inland Empire, including North Idaho, should be slightly above normal overall at near 30 inches in Coeur d'Alene. Our total snowfall during 2015 should be near 55 inches, about 15 inches below normal thanks, at least in part, to a warm El Nino event persisting at least early in the year in the tepid waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. All in all, 2015 looks like a pretty decent year, weatherwise and otherwise.