A strong system brought widespread snow to Eastern Washington for several days.
Every event with a place to put it; 9 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
A strong system brought widespread snow to Eastern Washington for several days.
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 9, 3:57 PM PST, 3 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Spokane WA
357 PM PST Fri Dec 9 2022
.SYNOPSIS...
The second system will arrive into the region this evening with
additional snow. Moderate to heavy snow will continue overnight with
rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour at times. Snow showers will continue
through Sunday before get into a cold and dry pattern. Temperatures
will continue to cool each day with highs in the teens to low 20s by
Friday and lows in the low to mid single digits.
&&
.DISCUSSION...
Tonight through Sunday night: The next system moves into the area
tonight with the next round of snow for not only the mountains but
the lower elevations as well. The biggest change to the forecast is
for the chance of light freezing rain in areas around Moses Lake to
Ritzville. Any amounts that fall will be light, not like they saw
last week. Warnings and advisories remain in effect through the day
tomorrow. We have expanded the advisory to include Grand County
since they have a threat of freezing rain and along with receiving 2
to 3 inches of snow. We have also increase snow amounts in the Blue
Mountains so we have issued an advisory there as well. Check
weather.gov/spokane/winter for the most up to date snow totals.
The GFS has been consistent with the snow amounts and temperatures
while the EC has had warmer temperatures and lower snow amounts for
the last couple days. But the most recent run trended the EC colder
towards what the GFS has been showing. Warm air advection will push
into the Columbia Basin but not as strong as recent model runs. All
of this combined has increase snow totals across most of the region.
This pattern sets up to have the highest snow totals in the
Wenatchee/Okanogan Valley areas along with the northern mountains.
After the system exits on Saturday night, we are left in a
deformation zone between the exiting trough and the ridge in Alaska
strengthening. This means that we will have lingering snow showers
to continue throughout the day but any accumulations will be light.
Temperatures on Sunday will be similar to Saturday. /KM
Monday through Friday: By Monday, the deep upper level low will be
to our southeast as ridging begins to move over western British
Columbia and the western US, with the Inland Northwest on the
eastern edge of the ridge. Locations across southeast Washington and
the southern Panhandle will see light snow through Monday, but less
than an inch of accumulation is expected. High pressure building
over British Columbia Monday will create a northerly pressure
gradient early Monday into Monday afternoon, producing breezy winds
down the Okanogan Valley into the western Columbia Basin. Since
temperatures look to warm above freezing on Sunday, snow should at
least see a little bit of melting which will work to lower the
chances for blowing snow with the breezy winds on Monday.
As the ridge moves eastward, the Inland Northwest will be under the
influence of a north to northeast flow regime aloft through the
workweek. As a result, temperatures will begin to trend much colder
for the rest of the forecast period and beyond. We will also see a
break from any significant snow events for the time being. By the
middle of the week, widespread highs in the low to mid 20s with lows
in the single digits to low teens will be common across the region.
This pattern looks to continue through next weekend and even into
early next week. /vmt
&&
.AVIATION...
00Z TAFS: Snow is currently push into the Cascades form West and
progress across the region overnight. Conditions at TAF sites will
deteriorate as the snow begins. The sites can expect LIFR
conditions with near airfield minimums. EAT-MWH should start by
03Z. GEG- SFF-COE-LWS-PUW can expect arrival around 08Z. /JDC
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
Spokane 25 33 27 35 22 29 / 80 100 50 30 20 10
Coeur d'Alene 25 33 28 37 24 31 / 50 100 50 30 20 10
Pullman 25 34 27 34 26 30 / 60 90 20 40 30 30
Lewiston 29 38 32 39 32 36 / 60 70 20 50 40 40
Colville 21 33 24 38 15 31 / 80 100 70 20 10 10
Sandpoint 27 31 29 36 24 31 / 50 90 80 40 20 10
Kellogg 26 34 31 37 27 32 / 40 90 50 40 30 20
Moses Lake 24 35 25 35 19 29 / 100 90 30 40 20 0
Wenatchee 24 31 29 36 24 31 / 100 90 30 30 10 10
Omak 23 32 28 35 20 28 / 100 90 50 20 0 0
&&
.OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ID...Winter Storm Warning from 10 PM this evening to 5 AM PST Sunday
for Northern Panhandle.
Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to noon PST
Saturday for Coeur d'Alene Area-Idaho Palouse.
Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to 5 AM PST
Sunday for Central Panhandle Mountains.
WA...Winter Storm Warning from 10 PM this evening to 5 AM PST Sunday
for Northeast Mountains-Okanogan Highlands.
Winter Weather Advisory from 10 PM this evening to noon PST
Saturday for Moses Lake Area-Spokane Area-Upper Columbia
Basin-Washington Palouse.
Winter Weather Advisory from 8 PM this evening to 7 PM PST
Saturday for Northeast Blue Mountains.
Winter Storm Warning until 7 PM PST Saturday for Okanogan Valley-
Waterville Plateau-Wenatchee Area.
Winter Storm Warning until 4 PM PST Saturday for Central Chelan
County-Western Chelan County-Western Okanogan County.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
9 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Observer reported 8 inches of snow for Dec 11.
Observer reported 13 inches of snow for Dec 10 near Leavenworth. Other reports from Plain, Leavenworth, and Ardenvoir ranged from 8 to 20 inches.
Observer reported 11 inches of snow near Malaga for Dec 11. Other reports in the Wenatchee area ranged from one to 4 inches.
Observer reported 8.8 inches of snow for Dec 10. Other reports in the Wenatchee and Malaga area ranged from 7 to 9 inches.
Observer reported 6.2 inches in Clayton.
Observer near Brewster reported 16 inches of snow. Other reports in the Okanogan Valley ranged from 5 to 8. There was a report do 19 near Malott.
Observer reported 8.8 inches near Five Mile on Dec 10. Other reports for Northeast Washington ranged from 6 to 12 inches.
Observer South of Wauconda reported 9 inches of snow on Dec 10. Other reports near Republic and Boyds ranged from 3 to 4 inches.
Observer in Chattaroy reported 6.8 inches. Other reports in the Spokane area ranged from 3 to 5 inches.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Washington in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Washington, 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: 1073449, 1073455, 1073462, 1073471, 1073485, 1073514, 1073489, 1073516, 1073518.