Wacky Weather
Coeur d'Alene residents George and Judi Ives bundled up with coats and ear muffs for their afternoon walk. "Every day we go out whether it's nice or not," Judi Ives said.
Hannah Neff
If someone had told Climatologist Cliff Harris that on April 11 in North Idaho it would be 12 degrees with the wind-chill factor, and it would snow, he would have said they were nuts.
But he's not.
Because that’s happened.
“Twelve degrees. On the 11th of April,” Harris said. “Unbelievable.”
After a snowless March, Coeur d’Alene received .9 of an inch in April.
It gets weirder.
A hail storm rolled through Saturday. The high on Monday was just 37 degrees. That’s the second coldest high this late in the season since it was 35 degrees on April 12, 1958.
Normal high this time of the year is 56. Thirty-five mph winds made it freezing cold.
And it’s back in the 20s at night, winter-like temperatures.
This is more typical of February weather, Harris said said.
He said as far as he could tell, this is the first time it snowed more in April than March in Coeur d'Alene, which now has 57.5 inches of snow for the winter, about a foot below normal.
Harris noted that just a few days ago, it was sunny and 60 degrees. That led some to plant flowers and that was a mistake as the hard-freeze Saturday night likely killed them.
“It’s too early to plant,” Harris said.
The extreme weather is the result of a large, low-pressure system that has settled over the region.
“I’ve never seen a trough like this this late in the season,” he said.
Harris said the cold and wind, high in the 40s and lows in the 20s, will hang around for another week or so, and it could snow.
It could return to the 60s late next week. Until there, Harris says bundle up.