Summer? Cool, wet weather to continue

COEUR d’ALENE — Just when you thought it was safe to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, along comes cool and rainy weather to send you running back indoors.

Climatologist Cliff Harris said Monday North Idaho is in the fourth of a six-week cycle of wetter, colder conditions. It’s more like April, he said.

“We just have to be patient and wait everything out,” he said.

The temperature only reached 59 degrees on Sunday, which missed the record-low maximum of 58 for that date set in 1913.

It’s been dipping into 40s in the mornings, prompting Harris to keep the fireplace or furnace going.

“I still don’t have my AC connected up because it’s been so cold,” he said.

But it should be getting a little warmer later this week and into next week, he said, adding “Not a lot warmer.”

Expect mid-70s and thunderstorms in the coming days, but come weekend, another low-pressure trough from the Gulf of Alaska is expected to deliver more moisture and cooler weather.

The area probably won’t see the 80s again until after June 20, and then it will return to drier and hotter conditions with temperatures in the 90s.

“So there’s warmer weather ahead, but right now, we’re in a cool, wet pattern,” he said.

He said it’s “almost unheard of” that three tropical storms — Arthur, Bertha and now Cristobal — have hit the U.S. by June 8.

“This is a pattern of extremes I’ve been talking about for decades and we’re here,” he said.