Enjoy mild conditions while they last
With all the talk of a cold and wet winter on the horizon, who would have thought we would be enjoying sunshine and temperatures in the middle and upper 50s for the first week of November!
Believe it or not, normal highs for this time of year are only in the upper 40s, and the normal overnight low has finally dropped to the freezing mark. We ended October wetter and warmer than normal, and are still waiting for those first snowflakes in the valley locations.
Overall, for the year, precipitation is running above normal – about .75 inches above normal for Spokane and a whopping 4 inches above normal in Coeur d’Alene. Those first low elevation snowflakes may be just around the corner as some chilly, moist air makes its way into the region by the middle of this week. Average snowfall for Spokane in the month of November is 6.4 inches. Coeur d’Alene averages 7.8 inches.
With the forecast of a strengthening La Niña in the equatorial Pacific, we’ve already heard how it will likely affect our weather here across the Inland Northwest. Colder and wetter conditions are expected, with above normal snowfall totals both in the mountains and the lower elevations.
What about the rest of the U.S.? It looks like cooler-than-normal temperatures will also affect much of the West Coast from Seattle all the way down to San Diego. Cooler-than-normal weather is also expected across Alaska and the Northern Plains states.
Warmer than normal temperatures are expected across much of the central U.S. this winter, while temperatures in places like New England and Florida have an equal chance of being above or below normal.
As far as precipitation goes, wetter than normal weather is expected not only in our neck of the woods, but pretty much the entire northwestern U.S., the Northern Plains, as well as across the Ohio River Valley.
Drier than normal conditions will blanket much of the south, especially across Georgia and Florida. Worsening drought conditions are expected to develop in those areas through this La Niña cycle following a record dry spell during the past five weeks.