Heavy bands impacted an isolated area of Idaho with heavy snow.
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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.
Heavy bands impacted an isolated area of Idaho with heavy snow.
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 Dec 17, 2:57 PM PST, 7 hours 3 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Spokane WA
257 PM PST Sat Dec 17 2022
.SYNOPSIS...
An Arctic front will being to press into the Inland Northwest tonight
and last through Monday bringing colder temperatures and areas of
accumulating snow. Increased moisture by the middle of next week
may bring even more substantial wintry precipitation to the
region.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
Tonight through Monday: Tonight is expected to be relatively quiet
underneath the stable ridge pattern from the past few days.
Continued stratus and fog will impact the low lying areas across the
Inland Northwest. Overnight lows will dip into the teens for most
with the areas in the northern valleys reaching single digits.
Change is coming late tonight. A Arctic boundary will begin to press
into the area from the North. It will bring a round of snow early
Sunday morning through Monday morning. Heaviest snow is expected
over the mountains with ranges of 4 to 7 inches possible. The
valleys of the Idaho Panhandle can expect 2 to 4 inches. For the
Spokane area and Palouse, can expect snow but amounts will taper
off the further west from the Idaho. These amounts led to the
issuance of a Winter Weather Advisory for these areas. The rest of
the region can expect snow amounts less than 2 inches.
Highs for Sunday will be in the 20s and teens. The Arctic push
behind the boundary will bring a frigid drop in temperatures. The
drop is temperatures is dependent on the clearing of low stratus
allowing for radiational cooling. Overnight lows will be in the
single digits to below zero. Monday highs will be in the teens and
single digits. /JDC
Tuesday through Friday: The focus for this period remains
centered around cold temperatures and chances of snowfall.
Confidence is still high that an Arctic air mass will invade the
region by Monday bringing us some of the coldest temperatures
we've seen all winter. However, the exact duration and extremity
of the cold is still uncertain as models are being especially
finicky with this weather pattern and refusing to narrow down the
range of possibilities they are predicting.
As the Arctic air mass pushes its way into the region, we'll see a
notable drop in temperatures from Sunday to Monday. Following this
drop, temperatures will stay cold at least through Wednesday, but
potentially all the way through the end of the week. Confidence
declines as we enter Thursday and Friday. Many locations will
experience the coldest temperatures so far this winter with
widespread single digits and some of our colder locations -
particularly near the Canadian border - reading below zero.
Afternoon temperatures will only warm into the teens with a
smattering of lower 20s around the L-C Valley. Single digit highs
are not out of the question, especially for the sheltered northern
valleys where overnight lows of -10F or colder are possible. If
temperatures drop that low, afternoon highs may struggle to warm
back to double digits.
No major snow events are expected during this time period, though
there will be waves of light to moderate snowfall throughout the
area. The greatest accumulations will be seen over the Cascades,
Idaho Panhandle, Blue Mountains, and Palouse with current model
runs showing a 50-70% chance of these areas getting 4+ inches of
new snow by 10PM Friday. /Fewkes
&&
.AVIATION...
00Z TAFS: Fog and stratus will continue to bring IFR and LIFr
conditions through Sunday morning for the Basin and valleys. An
Arctic boundary pushing into the region will bring snow to the
region starting Sunday morning and move North to South. It will
increase airfield conditions into the MVFR range late Sunday. TAF
sites impacted are expected to be GEG- SFF- COE- PUW. /JDC
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Spokane 13 24 4 14 -1 11 / 0 40 30 10 10 10
Coeur d'Alene 16 25 9 16 3 14 / 10 60 40 10 10 20
Pullman 15 27 14 19 10 18 / 0 40 60 20 20 30
Lewiston 20 33 23 27 18 24 / 0 20 60 20 20 30
Colville 9 22 -1 13 -10 11 / 10 30 10 0 0 10
Sandpoint 17 21 9 13 3 11 / 20 80 50 10 10 20
Kellogg 20 26 13 19 8 18 / 20 80 80 30 20 30
Moses Lake 13 23 3 13 -3 12 / 0 10 10 0 0 10
Wenatchee 16 21 7 13 2 11 / 0 20 10 0 10 20
Omak 12 18 3 8 -3 8 / 10 30 0 0 0 10
&&
.OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ID...Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to 10 AM PST
Monday for Coeur d'Alene Area-Idaho Palouse-Northern
Panhandle.
Winter Weather Advisory from 7 PM this evening to 10 AM PST
Monday for Central Panhandle Mountains.
WA...Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to 10 AM PST
Monday for Spokane Area-Washington Palouse.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Northwest of Moyie Springs received 8 inches of snow.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, December 2022
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: 1073419.