Another wet day is on the way across the Spokane area with rain moving overhead from the west this morning. That rain will last into tonight before things begin to dry out. If you are thinking that this winter, so far, has been abnormally wet...think again. The past 3 months have been pretty close to right on the button in terms of the normal amount of moisture that we have received. The big thing is that our snowfall has only been about half of the average to date. We have picked up 11.4 inches of snow so far (which in most cases has almost immediately melted off) versus a normal snowfall through January 3rd of 22.4 inches. Normal moisture...half the snow...hmm...says to me that the average snow level (the elevation at which snowflakes melt into raindrops) has been a lot higher this winter than it has the past two, when we had our snowiest and 3rd snowiest winters on record. You can thank, or curse, El Nino for this change, as it has provided the warmer air to raise the snow level.
Snow will fall in the mountains today, while we get our rain, and then the weather pattern will be making an abrupt change. A strong ridge of high pressure will begin building as today's weather system departs on Tuesday, and that ridge will hang on through the end of week. That means dry weather returning for a few days, and temperatures trending downward a bit. The coldest air will be east of the Continental Divide, much of the nation east of the Rockies will be in the deep freeze, so it won't be getting a lot colder around here. We should see high temperatures around 30 degrees at the end of the week, with fog and low clouds settling in by Thursday and Friday.
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