As December comes to a close, weather is warmer than normal

As Spokane residents ready for the transition in a new year, they may notice the weather is warmer than usual.

There also hasn’t been much snow and a few days of strong winds.

From Dec. 1 to Thursday, temperatures in Spokane measured 4.8 degrees above average. For November, temperatures were 1.9 degrees above average, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Greg Koch.

“That’s the most unusual thing we’ve experienced in November and December,” he said. “It’s pretty significant over a period of 25 or 26 days.”

Residents on Thursday also experienced high wind gusts following a vigorous frontal system, which is a warm front followed by a strong cold front, Koch said.

Temporary power outages were reported Thursday on the South Hill, one from a falling tree, according to Inland Power’s outage map.

Gusts reached 56 mph at the Spokane International Airport and up to 40 mph in other areas. It wasn’t as high as the gusts Dec. 18, which reached up to 68 mph and caused a tree to fall on the highway, killing two people in a car.

Spokane is also experiencing less snow than normal, Koch said.

“Spokane has had less than 6 inches total, and that accounts for the little snow we had early this morning,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t even see that because it had melted. But right now, we are running a foot below average for snowfall.”

The past two months have been wetter than normal, however, Koch said.

The county has seen more than 4 inches of precipitation in the past two months, which “has almost erased our precipitation deficit” from January of this year, Koch said.

“Things are improving, even though we aren’t getting the amount of lowland snow we are getting typically,” he said. “While we are getting the moisture, we are less than a half-inch away from being average.”