One of a series of winter storm systems with a warm southwest to northeast trajectory of approach and exit spread light snow over Eastern Washington and North Idaho with the most significant amounts over the North Cascades of Washington.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS OTX wrote it up.
One of a series of winter storm systems with a warm southwest to northeast trajectory of approach and exit spread light snow over Eastern Washington and North Idaho with the most significant amounts over the North Cascades of Washington.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Spokane, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 17, 4:55 AM PST, 2 hours 5 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 455 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2016 .SYNOPSIS... After areas of morning fog, the next round of widespread precipitation arrives this morning near the Cascades and into the Idaho Panhandle by this afternoon. This system is considerably warmer than yesterday so most of the snow accumulation is expected to occur over the mountains and near the Cascade Crest. The parade of storms will continue through next week, with the potential for moderate lowland rainfall and moderate to heavy mountain snow. && .DISCUSSION... Today and tonight...The break between systems will be very brief as the next storm system is currently drifting into western Washington. For most locations this morning the main story will be a stubborn deck of low clouds and fog left behind the departure of yesterdays storm system. The latest fog product shows the low clouds covering just about all of the Inland Northwest while the radar continued to show very weak echoes over the NE quarter of Washington and north Idaho. The moisture is roughly 3000 ft deep per the 00z Spokane sounding and was sufficient for producing some light drizzle or snow flurries. How long this very light precipitation will continue is questionable as the upper level shortwave ridge over the region begins to exit eastward and is replaced by the much more dynamic weather system over western Washington. This dynamic system is handled rather well by the models once again with broad warm frontal precipitation moving into the Cascades early this morning and heading to the ID/MT border by late afternoon. The isentropic ascent associated with this front will be very strong which will result in widespread precipitation across the entire forecast area. Precipitation amounts will be similar to what occurred yesterday, if not a little heavier over the mountains of north Idaho and near the Cascade Crest. This is likely due to slightly greater precipitable water values combined with slightly stronger low/mid level wind fields. This combination will contribute to stronger orographic contributions once the moisture tracks into the region. Model consensus is good that precipitation amounts will range from 0.30-0.75 inches near the Cascade Crest with another maximum over the Idaho Panhandle and extreme eastern Washington with values ranging from 0.25-0.50 inches. The main difference between todays event and yesterdays is the surface temperatures before the arrival of the precipitation. Todays will be slightly warmer. Current temperatures are around 1-5 degrees warmer compared to this time yesterday and more importantly dewpoint temperatures are up anywhere from 3-6 degrees. This will equate to less snow over the valleys during the onset of the event and significantly more rainfall for most valley locations. The only locations where we expect to see snow through the entire event will be in the immediate lee of the Cascades, including the Methow Valley and upper Wenatchee Valley. Portions of the Okanogan Valley and Okanogan Highlands could see predominantly snow as well. Just like yesterday, the GFS and EC models are not handling the low-level temperatures well. The temperatures and dewpoints are generally much too low, especially over the northern third of Washington and the northern ID Panhandle. The NAM depiction is much better and will be followed. The NAM solution has snow levels this morning on the valley floors along the Cascades and over the northern Washington mountain zones and has them climb to 5000 ft or slightly higher over the central Panhandle and SE Washington by this evening. For the far northern portions of Washington snow levels should rise to around 3500-4000 feet before falling later tonight as cooler and drier air moves in behind the trailing cold front. Meanwhile near the Cascades, snow levels could remain on the valley floors through the entire event. Total snow amounts are below headline amounts. Near the Cascade crest snow totals could near 5 to 9 inches with 3 to 6 inches possible over the higher Idaho mountains. For valley locations, the top totals should occur in the Methow and upper Wenatchee valleys with 3 to 6 inches possible, other valleys should generally see much less snow than yesterday. fx Monday through Saturday...Northern hemisphere long-wave pattern transitions from a fairly stable four wave pattern to a higher index three wave pattern Thursday that lingers as a three wave on through Saturday. This would leave a fairly active zonal flow with numerous systems making west to east passage through the area that have very warm north to south moisture taps funneling moisture and fairly warm air into them. This would likely result in fairly moderate to high snow levels and prolonged periods of moderate to heavy rain with temperatures on the warm side of what would be considered normal for this time of year. I expect timing between fleeting shortwave ridging between systems will be of short enough intervals to keep higher pops and not really get too intensive as far as trying to time the brief breaks between systems and instead will leave the pops fairly high for most of this interval. /Pelatti && .AVIATION... 12Z TAFS: The forecast area will remain between systems for the beginning of this TAF period. Latest radar and satellite data was showing precipitation from the next warm front moving toward the Cascades. Precipitation from this front should track into EAT and MWH between 16-20z and to the remaining TAF sites between 21-00z. Until the front arrives look for widespread stratus and fog to deliver predominant IFR conditions for all sites save PUW and LWS. These latter sites will see persistent easterly downslope winds and VFR conditions until the precipitation arrives. Confidence in high that precipitation will impact all the forecast sites during this period with rain the main precip type. The exception is EAT where the precip type forecast will begin as snow, but could mix with or turn to rain during the afternoon. Either way we expect to see the IFR conditions to continue and thats true for most of the sites today. Even LWS and PUW will see conditions deteriorate once the precipitation begins, however MVFR conditions are the worst that is expected. The precipitation threat will taper off over the western sites overnight, however confidence is high that the low clouds and IFR conditions will persist. fx && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 37 33 37 31 35 33 / 80 100 10 10 70 80 Coeur d'Alene 38 33 39 31 36 32 / 60 100 30 10 60 80 Pullman 40 33 40 33 38 33 / 90 90 20 20 60 90 Lewiston 42 36 45 34 43 39 / 80 80 20 20 50 70 Colville 36 33 37 32 35 35 / 80 90 0 50 50 70 Sandpoint 36 33 38 32 35 34 / 50 100 30 20 60 60 Kellogg 36 33 37 31 34 31 / 50 100 50 10 60 80 Moses Lake 36 29 36 30 36 30 / 100 30 0 30 20 70 Wenatchee 33 30 35 30 37 31 / 100 30 0 50 40 70 Omak 33 29 35 32 36 31 / 100 30 0 50 40 70 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. &&
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service SPOKANE WA 620 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2016 IDZ002-003-026-027-WAZ031>036-041-043-044-181430- COEUR D'ALENE AREA-IDAHO PALOUSE-LEWISTON AREA- LEWIS AND SOUTHERN NEZ PERCE COUNTIES-NORTHEAST BLUE MOUNTAINS- LOWER GARFIELD AND ASOTIN COUNTIES-WASHINGTON PALOUSE- MOSES LAKE AREA-UPPER COLUMBIA BASIN-SPOKANE AREA-WENATCHEE AREA- OKANOGAN VALLEY-WATERVILLE PLATEAU- 620 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2016 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Idaho... North Central Idaho...Central Washington...East Central Washington...North Central Washington...Northeast Washington and Southeast Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY No hazardous weather is expected at this time. IDZ001-004-WAZ037-038-181430- NORTHERN PANHANDLE-CENTRAL PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS- NORTHEAST MOUNTAINS-OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS- 620 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2016 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Idaho... North Central Washington and Northeast Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT Periods of rain and snow are expected to develop this afternoon and continue into the night. Initially snow will be possible in some valley locations, especially those near the Canadian border, however snow levels will rise into the evening, with most of the snow restricted to the mountains. Many of the mountain passes will be impacted by light to locally moderate snow amounts. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY Wet weather is expected to continue through most of the week. Snow levels will generally remain above the valley floors however they will be low enough that winter travel conditions are expected from time to time over the mountain passes. The best chance for moderate snow will be on Tuesday with moderate to locally heavy snow possible late Thursday into Friday. WAZ042-181430- EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES- 620 AM PST SUN JAN 17 2016 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Central Washington. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT Another round of snow is expected to develop this morning and continue at times through the evening. Light to moderate snow will occur over upper portions of the Methow and Wenatchee Valleys with the heaviest amounts expected to accumulate near the Cascade Crest. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY Wet weather is expected to continue through most of the week. Snow levels will remain near the valley floors especially over upper portions of the Methow and Wenatchee Valleys. The best chance for moderate to locally heavy snow is expected on Tuesday into Tuesday night and then again on Thursday into early Friday.
1 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
Trained spotter reports of new snow from the winter weather system ranged from 6 inches near Leavenworth and 6 inches at Plain, WA. The snow fell between 7 AM and 5 PM Sunday.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, January 2016
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 608341.