Inland Northwest Hay Weather

It has been a wet November.  Multiple storms delivering over an inch of rain this month.  Here's some precipitation observations for the month of November so far. Officially at Spokane Airport, 3.57" has fallen in November, which is the wettest November since 2006.  The all-time wettest November was in 1897 with 5.85". For Deer Park, 5.35" of precipitation has fallen in November, which is just shy of the 5.45" in 2006. But as we know, these kinds of things tend to average themselves out.  While we've been very wet for the past 30 days, the eastern part of the US has been very mild.  Short pants on Halloween.  Wildfires in the northeast.  And now we're going to see the pattern reverse.  The West will dry out and the East will be in the news with winter weather. Here's the current weather map.  Stormy in the West, warm in the Midwest, and a storm exiting the northeast. Here's the forecast for next weekend.  The pattern has flipped.  D...

By now you may have seen stories of a storm due to hit Washington on Tuesday night that is as strong as a hurricane. And these are accurate stories. However, they are all talking about western Washington. East of the Cascades, the weather from this storm will be much different.  This storm is the one we were discussing in our previous blog, and it’s potential to bring heavy snow to our area. The explosive nature of this storm is a big reason why the computer  forecasts  changed their mind so dramatically, and why they continue to struggle with the exact details.  First we’ll talk about the wind. Yes, western Washington (and Oregon) will experience a strong wind storm on Tuesday night. Here’s the European model’s prediction of wind gusts.  Note that the highest winds will be along the coast, but that there will also be strong winds in the western mountains.  One area to note is the west slopes of the Washington Cascades which can see very strong winds in thi...

In my previous blog, I noted that it looked like high pressure would dominate our area next week, bringing us dry and cold weather.  But recently the computers have slightly adjusted this forecast, and it looks to have some impacts on our area. First, the snow forecast for tonight is still pretty much in line with what I had talked about in the previous blog.  Snow will spread into the area this evening (Saturday evening).  Amounts will generally be light.  Look for about an inch in most valley locations.  In fact, our low temperature tonight may hold above freezing, which would further limit snow accumulation. The snow will change to rain and temperatures will warm to the mid 40s on Sunday, so the snow won't stick around long. The change in the forecast has to do with the placement of the forecast high pressure next week.  Instead of being located directly over us, it is now expected to be a little to our east. (This image is compliments of the website Tro...

As mentioned in the previous blog, snow is a  possibility this weekend.  There's a couple of chances, both on Saturday night as well as Sunday night.  Below is the chances of rain and snow over the next 10 days.  You can see the chance of snow late on Saturday, changing to a better chance of rain on Sunday, and then another lesser chance of a little snow on Sunday night. Why is this storm different than the previous rain storms?  Namely, it's where the storm is coming from.  The weather map below shows the storm that came through our area last Monday.  But it also shows another storm south of the Aleutian Islands, which is the wet storm that came through the Inland Northwest on Wednesday.  Both of these storms essentially are moving west to east. This next weather map shows the Wednesday storm in the West.  But you can also see the next storm that will affect our area this weekend.  Notice that this storm is coming from an area north of ...

After a few really nice November days, the rain will make its return starting tonight (Saturday night). There will be several storms passing through during the next week.  Tonight’s front will be the weakest of the bunch. We’ll only see about 0.1”. Here’s the precipitation forecast from the European model via the Pivotal Weather website.  The good news is that it should end Sunday morning.  The next rainy front will arrive around sunset on Sunday and last through most of Monday. Another wet front will move through our area on Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday will have some showers as well. Things should start to dry out by Friday.  The wind will also be rather gusty for much of next week.  Add it all up and the European model forecast for precipitation through Friday is shown below.  Snow should be confined to the mountains in this pattern. Low land snow may be possible next weekend as the atmosphere becomes colder. Stay tuned on that for now.  Here’s a...