Hello sunshine
Sunny skies greet a customer leaving Looking Glass on Fourth Street in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday.
BILL BULEY/Press
COEUR d'ALENE — Most people are looking forward to a weekend of sunshine, blue skies and temperatures in the 80s projected for this weekend.
Not Cliff Harris.
"I'm a little tired of people saying, 'When are we going to get some nice weather,'" the Coeur d'Alene climatologist said Thursday.
Instead, Harris is praying for rain.
"We need it," he said.
A mere .38 of an inch of rain fell on Coeur d'Alene in all of April, and it went 23 straight days without a single drop. Normal April rainfall is 1.77 inches.
It did rain a record .68 inches in Coeur d'Alene on Monday, beating the 1983 mark for May 6 of .53 inches, and more than an inch fell in Hayden. But Harris fears that's not enough to keep forests wet and cool heading into wildfire season.
For the year, it's rained 10.41 inches in Coeur d'Alene. The average for this time would be 11.67 inches.
"So we need the moisture," Harris said. "We need more than what we're getting."
Just not this weekend.
The forecast is for temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. Mother's Day could see a record if it tops 81 degrees.
Harris said people should enjoy the hot spell caused by southwesterly winds as he expects it to cool down and perhaps even rain next week.