It's been a 'tale of three winters'

As predicted many weeks ago, snow returned to Coeur d’Alene and surrounding regions on Valentine’s Day. Cliff measured 6 inches at his station last Wednesday. It wasn’t a record, but it was close. The snowiest Valentine’s Day occurred in 1949 when 7 inches of snow fell.

Cliff told me that for the fifth time in his career living in Coeur d’Alene, it was snowing so hard that he couldn’t see across his street. He measured a whopping 1.7 inches of snow in only 38 minutes on Feb. 14.

Normally, the Spokane International Airport receives about half of the snow when compared to Coeur d’Alene. That wasn’t the case last Wednesday. A record 7.3 inches of the white stuff was measured, breaking the old record of 4 inches set way back in 1923. The airport is currently standing at about 43 inches of snow, very close to it’s seasonal average.

Another big storm on Saturday dropped a record 7.3 inches of snow, breaking the record of 7 inches set back in 1986. As of early Sunday, Cliff has measured a seasonal total near 72 inches. By the way, our normal for an entire season is 69.8 inches.

We’ve also had four separate storms since Valentine’s Day, producing a total of 23 inches. Cliff tells me that there has never been a 5-day period in February with snowfall totals near 2 feet since records began in 1895.

With this big change in the weather pattern, more snow is on the way. By the end of the first week of March, Coeur d’Alene’s seasonal snowfall total may be at least 90 inches.

I’m certain that many will agree that this is not a typical winter. We’re telling everyone that it’s “the tale of three winters” across North Idaho. It’s amazing that we had three periods of relatively heavy snowfalls in a short period of time. Cliff tells me that searching through his records dating back to 1895, there hasn’t been a single snowfall season like the one we’re going through.

The “first” winter began in early November 2017. From Nov. 2-6, a total of 8.8 inches of snow fell, including a record 3.7 inches on Nov. 5. It looked like the winter of 2017-18 was going to be off to a fast start. Then, only 0.6 inches of snow was reported at the end of that month, as the rest of the moisture that fell came as rain in the lower elevations.

As we moved into December, the first two weeks had the lowest snow in recorded history, as only 0.1 inches was measured. Then, our “second” winter arrived about six weeks after the big snows in early November. From Dec. 15-31, 32.7 inches of snow was reported at Cliff’s station. To the delight of many, there was plenty of snow for Christmas. When 2017 came to a close on Dec. 31, Coeur d’Alene had seen 41.6 inches, a nice healthy total.

Despite an above-average precipitation total of 4.38 inches, which included rain and melted snow, much of the moisture that fell in January came in the form of rain. However, a below average 9.9 inches of snow fell, taking the snowfall total at the end of last month to 52.3 inches, still above normal.

The first 13 days of February were practically snowless in Coeur d’Alene. Only 0.4 inches fell on Feb. 3, taking the total to 52.7 inches. Temperatures warmed into the 50s on the 8th and many people thought that winter was done, but we had a feeling that things were going to change.

Well, the weather pattern moved — and in a big way — about 6 weeks after the big snows on December. Isn’t it interesting that these large snow events occurred about 6 weeks apart? The heavy snowfalls that were over the East Coast in early January finally migrated to our part of the country. Our “third” winter has arrived, and Cliff and I think that we’re going to see periods of snowfall through the first week of March.

This week is really going to feel like winter in North Idaho. Temperatures will be near zero Tuesday morning, making this the coldest period of the winter season. That’s very unusual for this late in the season. Prior to the expected frigid temperatures early Tuesday, the coldest morning was on Dec. 24 with a low of 7 degrees.

More snow is expected toward the end of the week. During the last week of February and into the “full moon” cycle of early March, it’s quite possible we could see another storm that drops at least 6 inches of snow in the lower elevations. Some of the long-range computer models are already showing this type of pattern. This also means we’ll have a lot of snow in the mountains for the skiers and snowboarders.

After the first week of March, we’ll probably see more of a rain than snow pattern, but precipitation totals are expected to be above normal levels into the first week of April. Then, we could see a six-week period of drier than normal conditions.

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com