Is this an "average winter"? (Caldwell, Emmett: appointed, house)

[rhinestonesniper]

We bought a house in Emmett, and will be moving there at the end of January

When we first started looking to move to the area, we were told that it only snows a few days a year, and it doesn't stick around for long. (Honestly, we were a little disappointed by that because we LOVE the cold and snow. Although we've never lived in it, so that might change)

We've been tracking the weather for the past few weeks to get ready for the cold and snow, and it looks like it snowed about a week and a half ago and the Freeze Out Hill camera shows that the snow is still there. We're beginning to think it snows a lot more in Emmett than we were originally told.

Does anyone know if this is normal? I know it's supposed to be a colder than normal winter for everyone, but is it THAT much different than normal? Is there snow all over right now because of the cold temps? Is more snow expected?

It was 65 degrees in CA today and it hardly feels like the holiday season. We cannot wait to get to Emmett and enjoy the winter!!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[boisefan88]

It's hard to say what is normal anymore.

I would say that this winter is "normal" if you go back 20 years. If you look at the last 10 years, no it is not normal. The cold weather and snow came a lot sooner than usual, and it has been a lot colder than I remember in the past decade. The inversions have been pretty overbearing, too.

So... long term, yes probably usual. For the last 10 years... no.

[lions6]

We are in the process of moving soon also. We own a house in Caldwell that we will be moving into when we sell our house in Portland Oregon. I also have been tracking the weather for some time in Caldwell and it does seem very cold this year. Is this normal for the caldwell area? We will be looking to move to Emmett in the future as we have been there a few times and we love that area. I also hope it gets some snow each year as we do not get snow in Portland very often and it is funny that when we do get around an inch or two the whole city either shuts down or they all crash into eachother. I cannot wait to get moved. We should have our house on the market around the first week of February and we look forward to becoming Idahoans (my gosh I hope that is right). Lions6

[Hp1167]

I'd say its pretty normal. The cold weather and snow got here earlier, but this is pretty much par for the course - cold temps, a big snowstorm or two, and nothing melts because of the cold... but the snow doesn't really cover the ground either. Just icy, mucky mess.

[Lacerta]

It seems pretty normal to me too. We often have at least once each winter that we have snow that doesn't melt for a couple weeks due to cold and inversion. It might have been a bit earlier than usual this year, but until the winter is over, we can't say if it is going to be like this all winter or if our super cold snap just came early this year.

I shovel our entire driveway at our office by hand (which goes all the way around the building and takes about 4 hours), so I tend to notice the snowfall. We had one year (I think it was 3 years ago, maybe 4) when I shoveled 13 times. The next year, I never shoveled, just used the push broom a few times. I would say anything between 0 and around 12 shovelings per year would therefore be a normal range.

I've shoveled once so far this year. The forecast is pretty good for snow tomorrow, too. That'll make 2 in December. So to me this winter, so far, is not outside of the normal range. It is normal enough.