Our snow has wandered eastward
From October through December, the western U.S. saw record rains and record snows, especially in California, where water has been so desperately needed.
In Sacramento, 14.42 inches of rain has been measured since Oct. 1, which is a little less than double its normal to date. Last year at this time, it had 2.35 inches.
The big rains and heavy snowfalls in the mountains have certainly helped ease their megadrought, at least for now. Snowpacks in the California mountains are averaging close to 130 percent of normal as snow has been measured more in feet than inches as approximately 25 percent of the seasonal snowpack came in December.
Here in North Idaho, after another summer drought, the skies opened up once again. Thanks, at least in part, to the intensifying cooler-than-normal sea-surface temperature event, La Nina, the snows returned and there was plenty on the ground this year for a glorious white Christmas.
On Dec. 25, Cliff measured 6 inches of snow on the ground. Last year, there was a little over 2 inches of snow, but the storm arrived late in the day.
The 6 inches in 2021 was the biggest total since 2016, when just over 13 inches was measured on Dec. 25. Back in 2008, there was a whopping 44 inches on the ground on Christmas Day.
Despite the big storms in late 2021, the weather pattern has changed across the western U.S. Much of the snowy and cold weather has moved to the east.
The northeastern states are now seeing moderate to heavy snowfalls after reporting record warmth last month. The storms in the West have been replaced by a new ridge of high pressure that has weakened Pacific storms, especially the ones moving into California. We did see some healthy rain totals last week across the Inland Northwest and we should also see some moisture this week. However, conditions are looking drier than normal between now and the rest of January.
It’s quite possible that the region of cold and snowy weather may back up over the western states next month, or around early March. As Cliff and I said earlier, the second half of the winter season in Coeur d’Alene and surrounding regions is not expected to be as snowy as the first half.
Since the season began, 50.2 inches of snow has fallen at his station in northwestern Coeur d’Alene. It may be a lot tougher to get the last 30 inches to put us at 80 inches for the season. If the cold weather pattern backs up over our region in early-to-mid February, then we should have a good chance. As always, time will tell.
Despite the recent abundance of moisture across much of the western U.S., drought conditions still prevail, but not as severe. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor and an article by CNN, “at least 40% of the Lower 48 has gone 68 straight weeks in drought conditions.” This is more than 17 months and it was back in late 2013 when drought conditions across the U.S. were so widespread.
The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows at least 50%, perhaps closer to 60%, of the Lower 48 in drought. Since late last year, this region has been expanding from the West to parts of the East Coast. Last October, much of northern Idaho was experiencing extreme drought conditions with exceptional drought, the highest level, across parts of central and southern Idaho.
The most recent map has Coeur d’Alene in an abnormally dry status. Central and southern Idaho is in moderate to severe drought. California’s drought has eased, but most locations are currently experiencing severe drought.
Although precipitation totals have been near to above-average levels in recent months, officials say more big storms are needed to help alleviate the dryness.
Water supplies are still down in many locations as the drought in the West has been going on for years, and even decades in the southwest, and there hasn’t been enough moisture to recover.
Another issue is the overuse of water as many reservoirs across the West are still below normal levels.
With the expected drought conditions to persist across the western U.S. and other parts of the country, we will likely break records for the most consecutive weeks with at least 40-50% of the U.S. in drought.
Data from the U.S. Drought Monitor indicates that our longest stretch of dryness in Kootenai County was 104 weeks, from late September of 2014 to the middle of October in 2016. We’re in our 39th week of dryness that began in the middle of April 2021.
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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com