An active February and an asteroid watch

It’s been a snowier-than-average February in Coeur d’Alene and the rest of the Inland Northwest. As of the weekend, about 2 feet of snow has fallen at Cliff’s station this month, compared to a February normal of 11.9 inches. The snow this month has been more than what we received in November, December and January combined. On Feb. 1, only 8.4 inches was measured in Coeur d’Alene with a seasonal total now over 32 inches.

Not much additional snow is expected in the lower elevations through the end of the month. The weekend rainfall, especially in the lower elevations, was due to warmer air from the central Pacific Ocean. However, it looks like we’ll have another round of snow in early-to-mid March. The normal amount of snow in Coeur d’Alene between now and the end of the season is around 10 inches. Therefore, there’s a good chance that our final snowfall total will be in the 40s. There’s a slight chance that we could receive enough snowfall next month and into April that could push Coeur d’Alene’s seasonal snowfall total to nearly 50 inches. That would be quite a recovery since we had less than 10 inches of snow at the start of February.

Based on the cooling of sea-surface temperatures, we did believe that our snowfall season in the lower elevations would be higher than the normal 69.8 inches that was predicted last October. The moisture that fell in the lower elevations was mostly rain, but in the mountains, it was mostly snow as over 200 inches has been measured at Silver Mountain and approximately 325 inches of seasonal snowfall to date at the top of Lookout Pass. In late January, sea-surface temperatures finally cooled down enough to change the weather pattern in the western portion of the country.

Although our seasonal snowfall to date is about 32 inches at Cliff’s station, parts of northeastern Arkansas have received around 30 inches of snow.

In addition to the snow down to the Gulf Coastal states, the early-to-mid portion of February has also been brutal cold across the central portions of the country. Sub-freezing temperatures were reported as far south as northern Mexico during one of the coldest periods in recorded history. Near the Canadian border in eastern Montana and North Dakota, air temperatures were down to near -40 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills down to -60 degrees in some areas. Below-zero wind chills were also reported as far south as Oklahoma and Texas during that coldwave.

Stations in Nebraska had high temperatures below the zero mark last Tuesday. Average temperatures in this state are in the lower 40s. In Valentine, Neb., the morning low was a dangerously cold -33 degrees last Thursday. Early this week, this region will likely have temperatures rise to close to 60 degrees, which would be over a 90-degree swing. Talk about extremes.

Coeur d’Alene’s frigid mornings occurred from Feb. 10-13. It was 3 degrees Feb. 10, dropping to -6 degrees on the 11th, our coldest morning of the winter season. It was -2 on Feb. 12 and 0 degrees Feb. 13. On that frigid morning on the 12th, Kellogg dipped to -5 degrees with -6 degrees at Rathdrum. Athol was extremely cold that morning with a low of -12 degrees.

On another note, and a change of pace, there have been numerous articles and features about an asteroid named 2024 YR4. There has been concern about this large object colliding with Earth in December of 2032. According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Southern California, the chances of an impact rose to 3.1% on Feb. 18. This was the highest chance of an asteroid impact with our planet ever recorded. However, NASA did lower the chances to 1.5% on Feb. 19 as new data became available.

NASA, the European Space Agency and other organizations monitor these space objects. There is a list of about 1,500 objects and they point out that there is a “near zero” chance of any of them threatening Earth within the next 100 years, including 2024 YR4.

Despite these agencies keeping a constant watch on these objects, in late January of 2023, there was another asteroid the size of a large bus that passed about 2,200 miles above the southern tip of South America. It was discovered just a few days before its arrival and was not expected to hit our planet, but it was “one of the closest approaches” ever recorded.

Many of us may remember the asteroid that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. That was another object that was undetectable as this also entered our blind spot. The object broke up over this region as many dashcams and other recording devices showed that event. Many windows were blown out and there was other damage from the impact.

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com.