Old Man Winter wilder than ever
BETSY COX/Courtesy photo Bree Pegg, 14, and her brother, Curtis, 13, are digging all this winter weather. The dynamic duo built their igloos Wednesday at Falls Creek Apartments in Coeur d’Alene.
A Coeur d'Alene school bus got stuck in the snow around noon Wednesday on 10th Street after the chains on one of the wheels broke, said Scott Maben the school district's communications director. Several students were transferred to another bus so they could get to their destinations, while school district workers brought new chains to the bus so it could gain traction and get moving again. (MARK ENEGREN/Courtesy)
COEUR d’ALENE — The February onslaught continues.
According to Press meteorologist Randy Mann and local climatologist Cliff Harris, as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Coeur d’Alene had received 33.2 inches of snow so far this month. Harris said it’s the snowiest first 13 days of any month in Coeur d’Alene history.
And it’s not over, either.
“We think Coeur d’Alene will smash the all-time February record of 39.5 inches set in 1955,” Mann predicted. “It could happen by Saturday as we see about 6 inches of more snow from several storms this week. There is another storm I see toward the end of next week that could produce at least 6 inches, perhaps 10.”
Boldly going where no local forecaster has gone before, Mann said this winter could come close to doubling the 50 inches the peerless prognosticators had predicted late last fall. He said 85 to 90 inches looks realistic, and “if temperatures stay down and we keep the moisture going through March and into early April, then we could challenge 100 inches for the season.”
Coeur d’Alene’s average winter snowfall is just under 70 inches. It was just over 64 inches by late Wednesday afternoon.