Record storms in other parts of the world

Last week, residents in Russia’s Far East were buried by the heaviest snow in about 60 years. The snow and very cold weather moved across Asia last Tuesday, which brought rare snowfalls to China. A town in eastern Russia called Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which is located on the Kamchatka peninsula’s east coast, reported more than 6 feet of snow during the first half of January. This is combined with about 12 feet in December, which smashed all-time records. In addition to the snowfall, strong winds led to large snow drifts that buried cars and other vehicles.

As of the weekend, a very powerful winter storm was gripping a large portion of the U.S. Places from Texas into the Northeast were likely to experience a storm that will cross over 2,000 miles and bring snow and dangerous ice. Locations from northeastern Texas northeastward into Virginia may see ice accumulations of one-half to an inch. With strong winds, wind chills down to at least -50 degrees were expected across the northern U.S., especially in North Dakota and Minnesota.

The last time the Inland Northwest had a major ice storm was in November 1996. During that event, about an inch-and-a-half of rain fell on the frozen surface. There was also freezing fog, snow, and mist. It was a mess as trees and branches were coming down due to the heavy weight of the ice. Ice-covered power lines and transformers were exploding as over 100,000 people lost power. Other structures like homes, buildings and vehicles were caked with layers of ice up to an inch thick. Total damage was about $22 million in Spokane and Kootenai County. Most recently, in early January 2019, close to a half-inch of ice was reported in Coeur d’Alene.

As of Sunday, there have been over 1 million people without power, along with massive travel delays across the country east of the Rockies. Over 17,000 flights were already cancelled over the weekend, which is an incredible amount. Amazingly, it’s estimated that 230 million people will experience the effects of the huge storm.

The historic event is associated with the infamous polar vortex. The polar vortex is a relatively large upper-level low-pressure system consisting of large masses of cold, dense Arctic air that is located near the North Pole. There’s also a polar vortex at the South Pole. When the polar vortex is strong, the frigid cold air mass will often stay confined near the North Pole as the Jet stream increases in strength. But, when the vortex weakens and splits into two or more vortices, like what occurred last week, the cold air will often push southward into North America, Europe and Asia.

Snowfall totals of 12-24 inches may be seen in parts of the Midwest, the Ohio Valley and the Northeast. This is more snow in one storm than what we’ve had for the entire snowfall season to date in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene region. At Cliff Harris’s station, only 14.6 inches has fallen for the season, with 13.7 inches reported at the Spokane International Airport.

Despite the cooler sea-surface temperature event, La Niña, the Inland Northwest has been experiencing a snow drought. The heaviest snowfalls and big storms are currently being directed to our east and other parts of the world. On average, when there is a La Niña, snowfall totals across the northwestern portion of the country are often higher than average. This will obviously not be the case this season.

During the winters of 2007-08 and 2008-09, the polar vortex was over the western U.S. Snowfall totals were nearly three times normal in 2007-08, as Cliff Harris reported the record-breaking season of 172.9 inches. The following season, Coeur d’Alene picked up 145.6 inches. Record-breaking snowfalls were also seen in Spokane as 92.6 inches fell in 2007-08 and 97.7 inches were measured during the 2008-09 season. By the way, the 2008-09 season flipped to an “open” winter as only 18.4 inches of snow fell in Coeur d’Alene.

By contrast, the season with the least amount of snow in Coeur d’Alene occurred in 1933-34 with only 11.3 inches. The 2025-26 season won’t be the most snowless, but it could end up in the top 10 for the least amount of snow.

The long-range computer models are showing more cold weather moving into the central portions of the country in late January and early February. The western portions of the U.S. will be under the influence of a high-pressure ridge that will keep many of the Pacific storm systems away from our region. However, the ridge is expected to weaken at times, allowing some moisture to move into the region. At least into early February, most of the moisture that falls is expected to be in the form of rain with a chance of snow in the lower elevations.

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Contact Randy Mann at [email protected].