Thanksgiving is this Thursday, November 27 and there is a good chance for some rain and snow across the region. The holiday has been celebrated every fourth Thursday since 1942, so it occurs as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.
According to the U.S. National Archives and an article from www.cleveland.com, President George Washington proclaimed November 26, 1789, as the Day of Thanksgiving, our first official Thanksgiving Day. From 1790 to 1862, there were different days throughout the year that were declared as Thanksgiving by sitting presidents. Then, in 1863, President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November. This policy remained in effect until 1939 when President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the second to the last Thursday of November. In late 1941, President Roosevelt and Congress established that the fourth Thursday of November would be Thanksgiving Day, a tradition that still exists today.
Looking at Coeur d’Alene’s records, the coldest Thanksgiving Day was November 28, 1985, when the low was -2 degrees. The maximum temperature in the afternoon that day was only 22 degrees. In contrast, the warmest Thanksgiving was on November 23, 2017, with a high of 60 degrees. The rainiest Thanksgiving Day was November 24 in 1960. A strong storm dropped 1.25 inches of rainfall in Coeur d’Alene that day. In terms of snow, 3.7 inches was measured on November 25, 2010, the snowiest Thanksgiving in Coeur d’Alene based on climatological records. Last year, our high on Thanksgiving Day was 36 degrees.
Thanksgiving time in the United States is celebrated with family gatherings, busy airports, and millions of people traveling across the country. However, the holiday season is also shaped by dramatic and occasionally major weather events.
One of the most dramatic storms around the Thanksgiving holiday was the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950, which occurred from November 22 to November 27, and brought chaos to the eastern United States. The storm produced blizzard conditions from the Ohio Valley to New England and produced hurricane-force winds along the Atlantic coast. Wind gusts of 83 mph were reported in Albany, NY, resulting in widespread damage. Nearly 2 feet of snowfall occurred in Pittsburgh, PA, and over 50 inches occurred in mountainous areas of West Virginia. The combination of excessive snowfall, wind, and record-breaking cold contributed to hundreds of deaths and widespread damage.
One of the most memorable modern events was the Thanksgiving week bomb cyclone that began on November 26, 2019, which affected much of the western US. The storm began as an exceptionally strong low pressure system over the Pacific Ocean and came ashore in Oregon and California before rapidly intensifying. Wind gusts of 70 to 100 mph hit coastal areas of Oregon and Northern California. Trees and power lines were either damaged or downed and major highways were closed. Several feet of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada, closing mountain passes and stranding vacationers on Interstate 80. Inland, the system merged with cold air, causing blizzard conditions in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The event became one of the most disruptive Thanksgiving travel periods ever recorded in the West, but northern Idaho was spared a major event as only 0.1 inches of snow was measured in Coeur d’Alene.
Last year, there was another bomb cyclone that developed before the Thanksgiving holiday on November 18. The storm’s central pressure dropped to a record-breaking 27.80 inches and dropped heavy amounts of rain across Oregon and California. Wind gusts were reaching speeds of approximately 80 miles per hour, causing widespread power outages. More than 200,000 people were left without power in British Columbia, Canada. In Coeur d’Alene, 1.80 inches of rain fell from November 20 to November 24.
The last time measurable precipitation occurred in Coeur d’Alene on Thanksgiving Day was on November 25 in 2021. With a high temperature of 43 degrees, there was 0.13 inches of moisture with 0.2 inches of snow.
In terms of our local weather conditions for December, very wintry conditions may occur throughout the inland Northwest. Scientists and sophisticated weather forecast models are indicating that the “polar vortex” is expected to weaken and bring colder and snowier conditions to parts of North America.
The polar vortex is a relatively large upper-level low pressure system consisting of a large mass of cold, dense arctic air that is located near the North Pole. There is also a polar vortex at the South Pole. When the polar vortex is strong, the cold air mass will often be confined near the North Pole as the strength of the jet stream increases. But, when the vortex weakens and splits into two or more vortices, the cold air is often pushed southward.
With a potentially weakening polar vortex and cooler La Niña sea-surface temperature patterns, snowfall is more likely in lower elevation areas. Long-range computer models are showing the potential for snow and cold temperatures in the Coeur d’Alene area over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
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Contact Randy Mann at (email protected).
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