Better get those lights a-twinkling
IRWIN STEIGER/Courtesy Physician/photographer Dr. Irwin Steiger of Coeur d’Alene captured this chilling but gorgeous moment last winter. It might be a portent of what’s headed our way.
Jack Frost is waking up, just as he did last winter outside Dr. Irwin Steiger's house in Coeur d'Alene. (IRWIN STEIGER/Courtesy)
COEUR d’ALENE — For all you Clark Griswolds out there, now is a good time to put up your Christmas lights.
Snow could make exterior illumination a bit more challenging later.
Press Climatologist Cliff Harris said Wednesday that a weak system arriving Friday night or Saturday might leave a little white stuff on the ground, and a slightly stronger system arriving Sunday night into Monday has a 60 to 70 percent chance of dropping several inches.
“Not bad,” Harris said when asked how the weather is shaping up for Thanksgiving Eve travelers. “At least having some snow on the ground for Thanksgiving would get a little holiday mood going.”
A bigger holiday mood isn’t far behind.
Harris said that as the region’s southwesterly winds above a high pressure ridge gradually shift toward the north-northwest, more cold, wet stuff will arrive. He’s forecasting a potentially big storm sometime by early December, but that one’s brewing in the Sea of Japan, which “is too far away and hard to predict right now.”
For the full holiday season, the snow everybody’s been waiting for might finally arrive.
“I do believe that two or three days after Thanksgiving into early to mid-January, we could see 50 to 60 inches of snow,” Harris said.
Other weather tidbits from Harris:
- Sunday’s rain broke a record for the date, with .93 inches soaking the area. “If it had been colder, we would’ve had a foot of snow,” Harris said.
- After record snowfall in September and October, the first half of November was the driest on record: .12 inches of moisture.
- Fans of white Christmases have a 95 percent chance of happiness on Dec. 25.