Locals enjoy warm January weather, but change is on the way
<p>Under the afternoon sun, Emma Griffitts, 12, buys a cup of lemonade from San Probasco, 9, after school hours on Monday in Coeur d’Alene.</p>
<p>Laura Johnson leads her children Abi, 7, center, and Liam, 3, on a walk through the Coeur d’Alene City Park as a heavy fog settles in the area Monday morning.</p>
Jim Tompkins paused from taking a walk in Post Falls on Monday afternoon and gazed at the blue, nearly cloudless sky.
"This is nuts, absolutely nuts," Tompkins said, wearing a T-shirt while reflecting on the unusually warm January weather. "I think I can get used to this."
Tompkins said last week he had to take his walks in the street because ice remained on some sidewalks. But all that's left of the white stuff now is a scattering of dirt-covered hard snow piled by the plows.
Monday's high reached 48 degrees in Coeur d'Alene - 2 degrees short of the record for the date in 1953, said climatologist Cliff Harris.
"If you stood in the sun, it was quite pleasant," Harris said.
The warm day followed Sunday's record-high of 56, which shattered the former mark of 49 for the day in 1959.
"We're pulling in air from the southwest over the top of that big high-pressure ridge over us that's warmer-than-normal air," Harris said. "This is more like a pattern that you'd see at the end of March than the end of January."
He said he would rather be on this end of the extremes than the brutal winter storm that was expected to pound the Northeast Monday night and this morning.
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," Harris said. "That's what we are seeing."
But don't get too used to the warm weather, as change is ahead, Harris said.
Highs will decrease to the lower 40s and upper 30s for the rest of the week, clouds will move in and there will be a slight chance of precipitation.
"There's a 20 percent chance - it will probably be rain - Wednesday night or Thursday," Harris said.
Most this winter's 30.3 inches of snow (21.4 inches fell in one week), fell this month. The snowfall normal for an entire winter is 69.8 inches.
Harris said not to jump into spring mode just yet, because he expects more snowfall in February and March.
"This is a false spring that we've been having," he said.
Even if it's short-lived, Tompkins will take it.
"I know Old Man Winter didn't pack it up just yet," Tompkins said. "But I've enjoyed his break for a few days."