(Kind of) warmer weather on the way
File photo Frozen raindrops march across the grill of a car after a freezing rainstorm last winter. At least for a few days, freezing rain, or other kinds of precipitation, should be in the rear-view mirror in the Columbia Basin.
MOSES LAKE — So – the East Coast is coping with an epic storm, heavy snow, hurricane-force winds, possible flooding along the coast, airports closed, roads impassable. Snow in South Carolina and Florida.
So that little bit of freezing rain doesn’t seem nearly so bad, does it?
In fact, Ron Miller, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Spokane, said the weather in the Columbia Basin is going to improve, at least a little. “We will be gradually warming up,” Miller said, with temperatures above freezing by Friday and Saturday.
However, even if the air temperature is above 32 degrees it could still be cold at ground level. Subfreezing temperatures have been around for most of the last 10 days, and it will take a while for the ground to warm up, he said. “Especially at night.”
The warm temperatures might be misleading, he added. And it’s especially important for motorists and pedestrians, because a road or sidewalk might be wet in one spot but icy in another.
So far in winter 2017-18, the upper Midwest has experienced heavy snow and subzero temperatures. The Thursday storm on the East Coast actually got a name, like a hurricane – or at least it got a last name; it was called Grayson. And there’s that aforementioned snow in the deep South. And so far in the West, it’s been cold in some spots, but not subzero cold, and that heavy snow has pretty much skipped the whole West Coast entirely.
That’s partly due to a change in the high-altitude winds known as the jet stream. The jet stream has moved north, at least for the early part of winter. That pushes the storms “up and over the western United States and into Canada,” Miller said. Only then is the jet stream turning south, pushing cold, snowy, icy weather so far south they’re making snowmen in South Carolina.
Miller said the best chance for precipitation in the Columbia Basin is Friday night, with gradually diminishing chances for snow and rain over the weekend. The possibility of any kind of precipitation drops to 20 percent by Monday, with a slightly higher chance on Tuesday.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.