Inland Northwest Hay Weather

  Four days ago I mentioned that the computer forecasts were “hinting” at some colder weather starting around the 23rd. Four days later, they’re still hinting at it, albeit a stronger hint. But we’re starting to see some potential details.  First, the odds of colder temperatures next weekend are probably about 60% now. Not a done deal, but likely. There’s still a lot of uncertainty. Some computers give us sub-zero low temperatures while others say we won’t go below freezing. Your app is probably saying teens for a low, and that’s the best guess right now. But it could be colder. There are three sources of uncertainty: Will the cold Canadian air push in from the northeast? Will this bring us snow? Will the skies clear with calm winds after the snow stops? Canadian Air The models have been showing this potential consistently and the trend has been to push the Canadian air in here a little stronger. So for question #1 I’d answer: Yes. Snow Potential If the Canadian air comes blas...

My first winter in the Inland Northwest was 1995/96. December of that year was extremely mild, with only 0.2” of snowfall at Spokane airport. “We’re gonna pay for this” I can remember hearing. I scoffed as the first half of January brought more of the same. Then the pattern changed.  Snow started on the 19th and 10 days later we had 15” on the ground with single digit highs and -17F lows. Groundhogs Day would have a low of -24F. Quite an introduction to Inland Northwest winter. Five days of rain and temperatures near 50 melted all that snow in a hurry. This caused record flooding on the Palouse.  I’ve heard the “we’re gonna pay for this term” numerous times. My guess is that it rarely pans out like it did during the winter of 1995/96.   Could we be in for the same fate 30 years later? First let’s take a look back at last month. December 2025 was incredibly mild.  It was in the top 5 warmest Decembers at just about every observation site in Washington record. For...

Just a quick update on the weather for the next few days.  Christmas Eve  A warm front will potentially bring record warmth to parts of the region. Spokane’s warmest Christmas Eve was in 1919 with a high of 55 degrees. We probably won’t reach that, but a high around 50 is possible. Walla Walla and Pendleton  will warm into the mid 60s tomorrow.  Not very Christmas type weather.  Christmas Day Temperatures remain in the 40s with rain showers in the afternoon and evening.  Friday A windy day with afternoon showers and gusts up to 35 mph. A slight chance that the rain could change to snow on Friday evening.  Saturday and Sunday A chilly weekend with lows in the 20s and highs in the mid 30s.  So this will be the third brown Christmas in a row at Spokane. And 6 of the last 8 Christmases have been brown at Spokane.  

For most of the country, a White Christmas is either impossible or too rare to actually gets your hope up for. But in the Spokane area, the odds are more like 50-50, with even better odds north of the metro area.  But with the last two Brown Christmases, statistics were in our favor.  To add to that, the climate models were predicting that the mild temperatures would be replaced with a cooler weather pattern for the holidays. And while the weather has cooled down, it’s not exactly great snow pattern for the Inland Northwest.  Here’s the current forecast for Christmas. The central and eastern US will have a rather mild holiday, while the West Coast will be cooler.  Unfortunately for us, the majority of the weather in this pattern will be aimed at California.  Lots of rain and Sierra snow expected there. Temperature forecasts for the next week are cold enough for snow, at times. But our high temperatures will be near 40, so rain is also a possibility at those time...

To say that the weather has been active the past couple of weeks would be an understatement. From the Atmospheric River flooding last week to the strong wind storms this week. You may be wondering what is next.  First, a short recap of our wind event. It panned out pretty much as expected. Here’s a map of some of the higher wind gusts. The widespread extent of the winds is really impressive. Spokane - 62 mph Coeur d’Alene - 66 mph Deer Park - 54 mph Sandpoint - 54 mph Pullman - 67 mph Lewiston - 73 mph Pendleton - 81 mph Here’s a map of the wind warnings (brown and tan shading). I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a large contiguous area of wind warnings before.  And in case you were wondering, yes there was even some lightning. Truly an impressive storm.  I had mentioned in an earlier blog that snow was possible for Thursday. That’s now looking more likely. There could be some lightning snow around sunrise Thursday. But a little better snowfall will start around noon and co...

We had some windy days last week, but nothing that caused much if any damage. We have some more windy days coming up this week. But the wind events coming up are likely to be stronger and more damaging.  The weather pattern this week is different and more favorable for strong winds. The first event will be Monday evening. Wind gusts will be around 45 mph. Here’s the US and European computer forecasts.  You’ll notice some differences between the two, but overall they’re similar for the most part.  This will be a good chance to see what model verifies better. The next windstorm will be Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.  And it will be windier.  Possibly a lot windier. Here’s the US and European forecasts. Widespread areas of gusts exceeding 50 mph with some areas over 60 mph.  Those kinds of winds will cause downed trees and power lines.  The computers are still haggling over the exact details.  Some of the previous forecasts had shown winds even...