768 FXUS66 KOTX 011204 AFDOTX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Spokane WA 404 AM PST Fri Mar 1 2019 .SYNOPSIS... An Arctic cold front will arrive on Saturday bringing a reinforcing shot of cold air along with blustery north winds, and biting wind chills. Portions of the Columbia Basin and Palouse may experience localized drifting snow. A subtle warm up is expected for the second half of next week, but temperatures will likely remain 15 degrees below average Wednesday through Friday. && .DISCUSSION... Today and Tonight: Temperatures are cold this morning. Skies cleared overnight over the central and southern Idaho Panhandle as well as southeast Washington and the Spokane area. Many reporting sites that experienced clear skies will start the day in the single digits or low teens. Low clouds around Wenatchee, Chelan, Omak, and Colville kept readings a bit warmer, generally in the lower to mid 20s. Low pressure moving inland and across Oregon today should produce enough cloud cover that the majority of the Inland Northwest will be mostly cloudy by the afternoon. Look for the chance of light snow this afternoon across the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington into the Camas Prairie and the southern Idaho Panhandle. Bands of light snow will also be possible over the Idaho Panhandle as an Alberta Clipper pushes into Montana. Saturday: The calendar may say it is March, but our weather this weekend will feel like mid-winter. Another shot of Arctic air will plunge into the Inland Northwest Saturday morning. North/northeast winds of 10 to 20 mph are expected to develop early in the day and persist into Sunday. Wind chills of 5 to 10 below will be possible early Saturday morning from Bonners Ferry to Sandpoint to Coeur d'Alene as biting northeast winds funnel down the Highway 95 corridor in north Idaho. Saturday's front isn't expected to produce much additional snow accumulation, but the fluffy snow that fell Thursday morning will likely blow and drift. Areas that have recently experienced problems with drifting including rural Spokane, Whitman, and Lincoln counties may experience more problems. /GKoch Sunday through Monday: An Arctic front will be entrenched across the region. The main impact will be temperatures, winds and the potential for blowing snow. Breezy northeast winds will continue at times to funnel down the Purcell Trench (north ID) and into portions of the Columbia Basin and Palouse. Winds will funnel down the Okanogan Valley as well. Gusts 10-20 mph is expected through the period. Given what light fluffy snowfall has recently fallen, there will once again be the potential of some blowing snow in those typical locations that have seen drifts many times already in the last month. Temperatures, not surprisingly, are expected to remain well below average for this time of the year. 10 to 25 degrees below average for this time of the year! Highs in the 20s to maybe around freezing with single digits or teen lows. Some of the colder pockets across the north may see below zero readings. This coupled with the wind will likely lead to some bitter cold wind chills, especially for March. In like a lion indeed! Tuesday through Friday: Low pressure develops Monday and sits somewhere around western WA through Tuesday. It will absorb/bring in some additional energy from both the north and south. We will see a chance of snow move into central WA Tuesday and then spread east into eastern WA and north ID by Wednesday morning. Not super confident in the Tuesday snow forecast as it will be pretty dry and it will take time for the atmosphere to moisten. It may just be some flurries. Models start to disagree with what to do with the low/trough by Thursday. The weather still looks unsettled, and have kept with chance of snow in the forecast. Temperatures will moderate, but still be below average for this time of the year. The National blend has some valley temps too warm across the north and have lowered their blend highs in the 40s down to the upper 30s. /Nisbet && .AVIATION... 12Z TAFS: The fog around Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Moses Lake early this morning seems to be shallow and relatively patchy. With dry air just above the surface, visibility sensors have been bouncing between 6 miles and less than a half mile. Increasing mid clouds associated with a low moving into Oregon may help disperse the shallow radiation fog between 15-17z. Bands of snow associated with the Oregon low will largely remain south of the Oregon/Washington border this afternoon and this evening. /GKoch && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Spokane 28 10 25 6 23 2 / 0 20 10 0 0 0 Coeur d'Alene 31 10 24 6 23 4 / 10 20 10 0 0 0 Pullman 29 14 29 9 21 5 / 0 10 10 0 0 0 Lewiston 34 21 34 19 26 13 / 10 10 10 10 0 0 Colville 33 13 31 5 30 1 / 0 20 20 10 0 0 Sandpoint 30 9 25 5 23 6 / 20 20 10 0 0 0 Kellogg 31 10 26 4 21 5 / 10 20 10 0 0 0 Moses Lake 30 15 31 14 26 6 / 0 10 10 0 0 0 Wenatchee 30 17 31 16 25 10 / 0 10 20 10 0 0 Omak 35 18 32 15 28 10 / 0 10 20 10 0 0 && .OTX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... ID...None. WA...None. && $$