<div>I also "relish" the much drier (so far) winter this season. Much more favorable for winter bicycling. </div>
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<div>National Weather Service predicts no major precipitation events for next week through Jan. 15, which is about the mid-point of the meteorological winter (Dec.1 -March 1, rather than the astronomical winter, Dec. 20-Mar. 20, winter solstice to spring equinox). Of course, the odds are against receiving enough snow during the remainder of this winter (either meteorological or astronomical) to equal either of the past two winters total snow.</div>
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<div>As far as snowpack impacts on water issues and the fire season, snowpack can melt much earlier in the season with a warm spring, so a large winter snowpack is no guarantee it will remain to melt at the optimum time for use in the later spring or summer, or to assist in mitigating fire hazard developing early. </div>
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<div>Consider the record setting January snow cover and record setting low snow cover for March in Eurasia in 2008, due to large snow cover that melted early due to very warm temperatures:</div>
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<div><a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080417_marchstats.html">http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080417_marchstats.html</a></div>
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<div><font size="4">Global Highlights</font></div>
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<li>The global land surface temperature was the warmest on record for March, 3.3°F above the 20th century mean of 40.8°F. Temperatures more than 8°F above average covered much of the Asian continent. Two months after the greatest January snow cover extent on record on the Eurasian continent, the unusually warm temperatures led to rapid snow melt, and March snow cover extent on the Eurasian continent was the lowest on record. </li>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett<br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/7/10, <b class="gmail_sendername">Dan Carscallen</b> <<a href="mailto:areaman@moscow.com">areaman@moscow.com</a>> wrote:</span>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Two things to comment on Swami Ted’s post:</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">1. While the lack of snowpack is a detriment to our water issues and could create a more hazardous fire season, I personally relish the though of an “open” winter after the last two, and historically that’s how it’s been (we seem to run on almost 20 year cycles – see the 114 years of snowfall data at <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMONtsnf.pl?id6152" target="_blank">http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMONtsnf.pl?id6152</a>), because that means we’ll either have more money for projects in the summer or ‘banked’ for the tough years (we haven’t really created that account yet – I’m wearing my city council hat now)</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">2. Winter isn’t over yet.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Comic Sans MS" color="maroon" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: maroon; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">DC</span></font></p></span>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">-----Original Message-----<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</span></b> <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com" target="_blank">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</a> [mailto:<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com" target="_blank">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</a>] <b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">On Behalf Of </span></b>Ted Moffett<br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, January 07, 2010 10:29 AM<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</span></b> Moscow Vision 2020<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</span></b> [Vision2020] El Nino Dry Northwest Winter Predictions Holding True</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">According to Weather.com, Moscow Idaho's average and 2009 actual precipitation amounts for Nov. and Dec. are:</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Nov. average 3.54 in.: Actual 1 in.</span></font></p></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Dec. average 3.14 in. Actual .81 in.</span></font></p></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Nov./Dec. 2009 only had 27% of average precipitation in Moscow.<br><br>Vision2020 post about El Nino arrival from summer 2009, with predictions for a drier less snowy winter 2009-10 in the Northwest:</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2009-July/064999.html" target="_blank">http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2009-July/064999.html</a></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</span></font></p></div></span></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br>