More snow expected across North Idaho into early March
As of early Sunday, Cliff has measured nearly 50 inches of snow at his station for February. It’s very possible that Coeur d’Alene will have surpassed the 50-inch mark for this month early today. We’ve already smashed the record February total, which was 39.5 inches set back in 1955.
For the season, we will be near the 80-inch mark today. The normal for an entire season is 69.8 inches. In the higher mountains, about 250 inches of snow has fallen at Silver Mountain with well over 300 inches at Lookout Pass.
Over the weekend, Cliff told me that he had 27 inches of snow on the ground. This is an all-time record with this much snow on the surface in February. Cliff also says that the highest two-month January and February period was 55 inches, which occurred in 1930. Since Jan. 1, Coeur d’Alene has received nearly 67 inches of snow.
The extremely frigid weather this month is also the longest coldwave in February’s history. As of the weekend, the average temperature in Coeur d’Alene is a whopping 12 degrees below normal. At the Spokane International Airport, the mean, or average temperature is over 10 degrees below normal. In Seattle, it was the fourth-coldest first half of February, as the average temperature was 8 degrees below normal.
There has also been a lot of snow in Spokane. The airport currently has 15 inches of snow on the ground, the highest for so late in the season. For the 2018-19 season, Spokane has received close to 47 inches of snow, compared to a seasonal average of 45 inches.
The Pacific Northwest hasn’t been the only location with cold and snowy weather this month. Last week, a strong storm system brought several feet of snow and blizzard conditions to the mountains of California, Arizona, New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.
Visitors to Las Vegas who were expecting warm and sunny weather were hit with a coating of snow on the Strip, and up to 3 inches in the surrounding area. The Las Vegas Airport reported slightly less than an inch. Trace amounts of snow were also seen on Feb. 10. Multiple snowfalls in one month, especially February, are rare for Las Vegas. The last time that area saw more than one snow in a month was back in 1949.
Snow was also reported in the mountains near Los Angeles late last week. Rare snow was also spotted in Malibu, Calif.
This same storm also brought record rains to Phoenix, as over an inch was reported. However, in some the outlying areas, which are slightly higher in elevation, it was cold enough to produce some snow. In the higher mountains, Flagstaff, Ariz., received a single-day snowfall record of 35.9 inches. The old record was 31 inches set way back in 1915.
In addition to the big snows this month across the western U.S., this was also the snowiest February in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Many stations in these states reported over 30 inches of snow this month. Weather records for this part of the country go back to the early 1890s.
This year has barely started, and it looks like another one with worldwide weather extremes. January saw some of the coldest weather in history across the central portions of the country. One station near the Canadian border dropped down to minus 56 degrees Fahrenheit last month. In the Southern Hemisphere, record heat of over 110 degrees led to numerous wildfires.
It was reported that the Red Lion Hotel in Adelaide, Australia — a major city in the southern portion of the continent — promised free beer if the temperature went above 45 degrees Celsius, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit, during the big heatwave last month. Well, the mercury shot up to 46.6 degrees Celsius, or 115.88 degrees Fahrenheit. The hotel gave away about 200 gallons of beer to customers in two hours. By the way, that temperature of nearly 116 degrees was the hottest reading ever recorded in an Australian major city.
It certainly has been a wild February here in North Idaho and across the planet. This particular weather cycle that has brought us the heavy snowfalls and cold weather began on Feb. 3. Most weather cycles of cold, warm, dry, wet, etc., will normally last for 6 weeks. Sometimes, these cycles will go on for 12 weeks. In this case, Cliff and I see more snow across North Idaho through the middle of March before this current 6-week cycle comes to an end. After that, conditions are expected to turn warmer with more of a rain and snow mix later in the month and into April.
We still see a final snowfall total in Coeur d’Alene ending up around 90 inches. However, if the storms in early March are bigger or we continue to have occasional snowfalls from mid March into April, then it’s quite possible we could be talking about another 100-inch snowfall season. Again, that would be amazing since we started off our winter with a lot more rain than snow.
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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com