SANDPOINT — This fall’s prediction that an El Niño climate phenomenon would be a dominant force this winter in the Inland Northwest likely sent chills up the spines of skiers, snowboarders and snowmobile riders.

The phenomenon, which is triggered by periodic warming of ocean water in the tropical Pacific, typically produces an unusually dry and warm winter, which can spell trouble for snowpack in the northern Rocky Mountains.

However, the Natural Resource Conservation Service in the northern Panhandle Idaho is reporting that snowpack so far is 84 percent of average.

To the south, snowpack in the Spokane and Clearwater regions are 90 and 105 percent of average, respectively, according to Idaho’s NRCS.

Snowpack in regions south of the Clearwater range from 63 to 86 percent of average, the NRCS reports.

Earlier this month, the year-to-date precipitation was 65 percent of normal in the northern Panhandle.

The National Weather Service in Spokane reports that a relatively weak but cold storm system was expected to pass through the region late Wednesday and early Thursday, bringing accumulations of generally 1 to 3 inches to the valleys and eastern Columbia Basin.

The Idaho Panhandle mountains and Camas Prairie will receive a bit more as the front shears and stalls tonight as the parent trough digs southward prolonging the precipitation period and with post frontal flow becoming orographically favorable for upslope into the Camas overnight and into Thursday morning, according to NWS.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.