Will We Have to Pay For This?
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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...