Snow advisory issued for Lookout Pass

Snow is finally returning to the mountains of the Inland Northwest. Unfortunately, it’s not the mountains where snow is badly needed. The National Weather Service office in Missoula issued a winter weather advisory for Lookout Pass late this afternoon, calling for 2 to 4 inches from the pass eastward to Haugen tonight. The advisory said that light rain would change to snow this evening. The mountains of northwest Montana have some of the best snow layers in the Pacific Northwest with measurements running near or above normal. Much of Washington and Oregon, especially the Cascades, have very low water storage in unusually thin snowpacks. In a lot of areas, the water equivalent is less than 25 percent of normal. The thinnest snowpacks are found at middle elevations that normal accumulate snow through early spring, but milder weather and February rain ate away at those snow layers. In the Spokane area, the heavier amount of rain in recent days is going to lead to late night and morning fog for the rest of the work week. However, some sun may show up later in the day. Spokane International Airport and Felts Field both recorded 0.14 inches of rain today through 5 p.m.