US National Weather Service Spokane Washington

Areas of fog will impact much of eastern Washington and north Idaho through Monday morning. If you encounter fog, make sure you use your LOW beam headlights and increase your following distance.We repeat - LOW beam headlights...

Dense fog advisory issued for the Palouse and northern foothills of the Blue Mountains areas through midnight.

Eastern Washington & North Idaho weather history for Jan 5th includes entries for damage caused by debris flows, landslide, and runoff back in 2006 & 2010.

Find your sunglasses! 🕶️ You will need them to start off your workweek. After some patchy morning fog, sunshine is expected Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon we will see increasing high clouds ahead of the next weather feature. What a great way to start the first full week of the new year! 🌞

This day in weather history for Eastern Washington & North Idaho for January 4th include entries for heavy snow on 2007 and 2009 along with extreme cold in 2004. The link to the Palouse Heavy snow event is here: https://www.weather.gov/otx/Palouse_Heavy_Snow_event-january42007

Another round of snow is expected to develop this evening and bring widespread snow to the region overnight. The most significant snowfall is expected to fall over the Cascades, impacting both Stevens and Snoqualmie Passes. Meanwhile, most of the valley snow is expected to occur near the Canadian border and into portions of the Idaho Panhandle.

We just gathered the midnight climate data at our office and it's officially our biggest snow of the winter thus far; over 4" and still snowing. At the Spokane Airport, the official snow measurement was 3.1" as of midnight.

Did you receive snow today? If so, how much? Please include amount (photos are always helpful!), approximate location, and time of measurement.

Good Friday morning!

Freezing rain is expected today (Jan 3) across portions of Eastern WA and North ID. Slick surfaces, roads, and sidewalks, as temperatures across the region range from 31F to 35F degrees. As northeast winds become breezy this morning, this introduces a tricky forecast that could lead to slower onset and longer duration of freezing rain across eastern Washington and into north Idaho.

Heads up for the Friday morning commute: Freezing rain will develop around 4-5 AM in the Spokane/Cda metro and along US-2 from Airway Heights to Almira. Expect winter driving conditions and give yourself a few extra minutes for your commute.

The next weather system moving through, which could provide more widespread impacts of winter driving conditions for the region and locally slick surfaces from freezing rain...will move in early Friday morning. The best chance for freezing rain will be across portions of Highway 2 across the upper Columbia Basin...Almira area to Spokane area, as well as portions of Spokane and Kootenai counties. Ice accumulations will be less than a tenth of an inch. Snow will fall across the Cascades, Cascade valleys, and northern WA and ID. Winter weather advisories have been issued for these areas for snow. Rain is expected for the southern Columbia Basin, Palouse, LC Valley and Camas Prairie. Precipitation will transition to rain through the day for areas on the map expecting freezing rain.

"How bad has this winter been?" Well, according to the accumulated winter season severity index (AWSSI), it is one of the easiest winters on record *so far*. This index accounts for temperature AND snow data.

Hello LC Valley...we didn't forget about your monthly and annual climate statistics, we just had to fix some spurious data. So, without further ado here are the numbers for the Lewiston Airport. Like elsewhere in the Inland NW, you experienced a rather mild December, and the 5th warmest year since statistics have been kept.

We can't forget about our friends in the Wenatchee Valley. Here are your December and yearly climate stats.

Happy New Year to you early birds chomping at the bit to get the new year started!
Are you sipping your coffee wondering how the year ended, climate-wise? Well, check out Spokane's December climate stats, as well as some 2024 climate info. The precipitation in Spokane was near normal for the year. Meanwhile, the temperatures in Spokane were unusually mild. It was the 4th warmest year since records began in 1882. It was also the 3rd time we've cracked the top 10 in the last 4 years.