December, and snow, are here

MOSES LAKE — Why yes, it’s December. That snow out there is one way Mother Nature makes that clear.

Grant County residents can expect one to two inches during the day Tuesday, with the potential for rain in the afternoon, said Matt Fugazzi, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane. In a way that’s good news, since more snow is forecast for the area around Wenatchee and points north, as well as the area around Spokane.

(It should be warm enough to keep the rain from turning into freezing rain, according to the NWS website.)

“The mountains are going to get pretty well clobbered by this one,” Fugazzi said.

A mix of rain and snow is forecast for the Pacific Northwest for the rest of the week, but most of the activity will be either north or south of Grant County, according to the NWS.

That takes care of this week, but there’s a lot of winter to go. What’s it look like through, say, February? Well, that’s a little hard to answer.

Weather forecasters usually have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen about 10 days out. But after that it gets a little harder, Fugazzi said. There are long-term weather patterns, and those can give some clues. The clues seem to point to temperatures, and maybe precipitation, a little above normal.

“It looks like a weak El Niño,” Fugazzi said. For those whose memories of high school science have faded, “El Niño” refers to periodic changes in the Pacific Ocean that affect weather in the Western Hemisphere.

An El Niño means warmer-than-normal water temperatures at the surface, mostly in the central Pacific. That in turn means – well, for December through February it probably means temperatures a little warmer than normal. It also could mean more precipitation than normal, but it’s a little harder to evaluate the signs when it comes to precipitation, he said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.