Idaho Falls-Couer D' Alene- Eagle/Boise- My Trip May 2017- Observations, Experiences and Research (Coeur d'Alene: contractor, living in)

[javatom]

Originally Posted by Syringaloid

What is it "we don't care" about?

winter

[Lizap]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Well we certainly get winters, so if you don't enjoy winter, cold, and snow it's not the place for you (generically speaking, people in general, not you specifically, lizap)

I think CDA is located in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. If we could afford two homes, we would live here half of the year.

[aiden_is]

removed

[K-Dog]

@ decayed- Hey. We might have met before. I am Elmo 04. You still in the VP area or did you move?

@AlisonA - Thank you for your kind words. IF and Twin Falls are close by so you can check them out and see what best fits you. I know I am more of an IF person because of the options in the city and nearby. Twin Falls was less appealing to me for a variety of reasons so it was just a stop to sleep.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by javatom

winter

Well said.
Winter is winter. Everyone, no matter where they live, goes through the season expecting there will be cold days and dark nights even in the warmest states.

No one should expect to move here and not anticipate snow, cold, and gloomy skies. Winter is the season of the year that some people love, some just enjoy but grow tired of, and some just hunker down and go through it. A person's frame of mind makes a lot of difference as to how bad the season really is or is not.

One thing about Idaho though, is folks here only go trough one bad winter. That's all it takes for them to learn how to prepare for it, and once prepared, the winters here are no worse or better than they are in the other 2/3 of the nation. They come with the territory, are a fact of life, and have to be accepted as such.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Well said.
Winter is winter. Everyone, no matter where they live, goes through the season expecting there will be cold days and dark nights even in the warmest states.

No one should expect to move here and not anticipate snow, cold, and gloomy skies. Winter is the season of the year that some people love, some just enjoy but grow tired of, and some just hunker down and go through it. A person's frame of mind makes a lot of difference as to how bad the season really is or is not...

Have to truthfully say that I'm disappointed in the amount of snow we've received here on the Prairie. So far this winter, it hasn't come very often and doesn't stick around very long. Talking to the neighbor yesterday, he said we're pretty much done for this year. Maybe a few more storms, but nothing major.

Blue skies are rare, but I was warned about that before moving here. It doesn't bother me too much, and never has my entire life. Now, the rain? That's a different story. There sure is a lot of it. At least it lets up to where the roads dry out so that I can get a few miles in on the bike.

Went to run some errands yesterday, the first was to the recycle bins in town. Upon leaving, I noticed the car thermometer said it was 51 degrees. What! Too nice of a day to take the car everywhere, so I went back home and pulled out one of the bikes to run the rest of the errands.

Going to be a quiet afternoon with most folks watching the game. Guess I'll wander down to Higgen's Point with the camera and hopefully get lucky with some Bald Eagle action on the lake.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by volosong

Have to truthfully say that I'm disappointed in the amount of snow we've received here on the Prairie. So far this winter, it hasn't come very often and doesn't stick around very long. Talking to the neighbor yesterday, he said we're pretty much done for this year. Maybe a few more storms, but nothing major.

Blue skies are rare, but I was warned about that before moving here. It doesn't bother me too much, and never has my entire life. Now, the rain? That's a different story. There sure is a lot of it. At least it lets up to where the roads dry out so that I can get a few miles in on the bike.

Went to run some errands yesterday, the first was to the recycle bins in town. Upon leaving, I noticed the car thermometer said it was 51 degrees. What! Too nice of a day to take the car everywhere, so I went back home and pulled out one of the bikes to run the rest of the errands.

Going to be a quiet afternoon with most folks watching the game. Guess I'll wander down to Higgen's Point with the camera and hopefully get lucky with some Bald Eagle action on the lake.

It's only the first week of February. While with every passing day of warm weather the chances of having big snow do lessen, there's still plenty of winter left.

If the Arctic jet stream, which is wobbling around south of the north pole in a figure 8 pattern decides to do a big wobble, we could get as much winter in February as the east coast got in early December pretty quickly.

I never discount any winter's potency until the middle of March. I've seen too many blizzards happen in this time of year that drop 3 feet at a whack, and then turn to ice a week later after it rains or sleets.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by volosong

Have to truthfully say that I'm disappointed in the amount of snow we've received here on the Prairie. So far this winter, it hasn't come very often and doesn't stick around very long. Talking to the neighbor yesterday, he said we're pretty much done for this year. ...............

It's the first week of February. Winter is a long ways from being over.

Rathdrum covers a lot of territory. I'm also in Rathdrum, and I've had snow on the ground non-stop.

The roads are kept clear by the snow plows My driveway is clear, but I ran the snow blower several times in each snow storm and I've paid a snow plow to clear the driveway twice. It's been warm enough to melt light snowfalls off the driveway, but there is still several inches of snow in the yard and still piles of snow along the roads, pushed there by the snow plows.

A person could ride a bike here right now because the roads are clear, but the snow is defiantly not gone and both February and March can have serious blizzards. So you still have a chance to get the snow you want. Don't put the snow blower into storage just yet.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Apologies... that posted twice.

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by volosong

Have to truthfully say that I'm disappointed in the amount of snow we've received here on the Prairie. So far this winter, it hasn't come very often and doesn't stick around very long. Talking to the neighbor yesterday, he said we're pretty much done for this year. Maybe a few more storms, but nothing major.

We've been getting precipitation, but warm weather has resulted in a lot of that being rain instead of snow. Here in Sagle I've recorded 67.7" of snow so far this winter, which is about our average annual total. I've also recorded 5.5" of rain since Dec 1. In our clear areas we still have about 7" of snow on the ground, but we're seeing lots of bare ground under the trees where of course the snow wasn't as deep to begin with.

Our snow water equivalent varies quite a bit here, but conservatively had it been colder that rain could have been another 35+ inches of snow. Conceptually, snow water equivalent is measured by melting the snowfall and measuring how many equivalent inches of rain fell in the form of snow. I measure numbers from 6.9" of snow per inch of equivalent rain, and as high as 13" of snow per inch equivalent of rain.

While I agree with others that it is still early February and there is plenty of time for more winter, the medium term forecast doesn't predict any changes to the pattern we've fallen into since early January. Once again this year we've seen a very persistent high pressure ridge form off the west coast, and this tends to force the jet stream to the north of us which in turn leads to the warmer weather. I occasionally follow this California Weather Blog, and while it mostly talks about California, the larger weather patterns he discusses give us some good clues about what's happening in our neck of the woods. He suggests the ridge will remain in place for the next 2-3 weeks.

This same sort of pattern was in place during the winters of 2014/15 and 2013/14, both low snow years here in NID.

Here's hoping for more winter!

Dave