At this time each year, climatologist Cliff Harris and I issue our annual city-by-city winter snowfall predictions for Coeur d’Alene and other areas across the Inland Northwest. October is a key month that often provides a preview of what type of weather pattern we can expect over the next few months.

Cliff tells me that when we have a wetter than normal October, there’s often a snowier than average winter in our part of the country. That was certainly the case last year as a record-smashing 8.88 inches of rain fell in Coeur d’Alene. Our final 2016-17 snowfall season ended up at 115.4 inches, compared to the normal of 69.8 inches.

October 2017 did start off drier than normal, but after a brief dry spell early this week, moisture totals are expected to increase. Temperatures are forecast to be getting colder near Halloween, so you’ll have to bundle up the trick-or-treaters. The date with the best chance of measurable snowfall in the Coeur d’Alene area would be around the “full moon” lunar cycle of Nov. 4-9. However, there’s a chance we could see some snow in the lower elevations around the end of this month.

The winter of 2015-16 produced below average snowfall totals in most locations thanks to the warm, El Nino sea-surface temperature pattern in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. During that season, Cliff measured 56.2 inches of snowfall at his station. Much of the snow that fell that season occurred in December 2015 as a whopping 37.2 inches fell in the last half of the month.

Thanks to an expected weak, cooler La Nina sea-surface temperature pattern in the south-central Pacific Ocean, as well as other meteorological and climatological factors, we have increased our snowfall projections for the region by an additional 25 percent to 30 percent above normal for the fast-approaching 2017-18 winter season. But, we don’t anticipate snowfall totals like the ones during the 2016-17 season — at least for now.

Here are the latest city-by-city seasonal snowfall predictions, from the most to the least accumulations:

1. Area ski resorts should range from approximately 225-250 inches at Mt. Spokane to around 375-400 inches at both Lookout Pass and Montana’s Whitefish Mountain.

2. Priest Lake: 100 to 104 inches.

3. Spirit Lake: 98 to 102 inches.

4. Twin Lakes: 96 to 100 inches.

5. Rathdrum: 95 to 99 inches.

6. Sandpoint: 93 to 97 inches.

7. Wallace: 92 to 96 inches.

8. Kellogg (town): 91 to 95 inches.

9. Hayden Lake (above 2,400 feet): 90 to 94 inches.

10. Athol/Garwood: 89 to 93 inches.

11. Hayden (town): 88 to 92 inches.

12. NW Coeur d’Alene (my station on Player Drive): 86 to 90 inches.

13. Dalton Gardens: 84 to 88 inches.

14. St. Maries: 82 to 86 inches.

15. Hope: 80 to 84 inches.

16. Kalispell, Mont.: 79 to 83 inches.

17. Coeur d’Alene (downtown near the Cd’A Resort): 78 to 82 inches.

18. Post Falls: 76 to 80 inches.

19. Plummer: 74 to 78 inches.

20. Harrison: 73 to 77 inches.

21. Missoula, Mon.: 70 to 74 inches.

22. Spokane (South Hill): 66 to 70 inches.

23. Spokane Valley: 65 to 69 inches.

24. Bayview: 63 to 67 inches

25. Spokane International Airport: 62 to 66 inches.

As usual, we reserve the right to raise or lower these projections later this fall if we see major changes in sea-surface temperature or sunspot activity.

Stay tuned...

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com