https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/regional-news/2025-12-20/northwest-just-finished-warmest-fall-on-record-scientists-report
Northwest just finished warmest fall on record, scientists report
Spokane Public Radio | By Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle
Published December 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM PST
Snowpack in the Northwest is sitting at the lowest level for the region as a whole at this point in the winter since record keeping began in 2001, according to Jacob Genuise, a climatologist at the Washington State Climate Office.
“We’re seeing just really warm storms with a lot of rain and not a lot of snow,” Genuise said. “Given all this warm rain, it actually melted some of our snowpack, and we saw a decline.”
Northwest had warmest season in more than 130 years of recordkeeping
The Northwest just experienced its sixth warmest August on record, the warmest September on record — about 6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal on average — and the second warmest November on record, according to NOAA data.
Taken together, August through November of this year was the record warmest on average across the Northwest in more than 130 years of record keeping. NASA scientists, using NOAA records of global average temperatures dating back to 1880, found that this November was the third-warmest November on Earth, behind only November of 2023 and 2024.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/dec/22/a-not-so-white-christmas-forecasted-for-the-spokan/
The Spokesman-Review
A not-so white Christmas forecast for the Spokane region
Dec. 22, 2025 Updated Mon., Dec. 22, 2025 at 9:51 p.m.
By Mathew Callaghan
Christmas is the season of many things. Enjoying time with loved ones, gift giving and making gingerbread houses probably all come to mind.
But “the most wonderful time of the year,” is often synonymous, at least in this area, with something else: snow. Unfortunately this year, Spokanites shouldn’t get their tinsel in a tangle, as it’ll be a Christmas miracle if any diamond-dotted flakes stick around long enough for Christmas dinner.
“It’s not (going to be) quite the white Christmas we all desire,” said Daniel Butler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane.
Christmas Day is expected to reach a high of 44 degrees in Spokane, he said, which makes this year the eighth warmest Christmas since 1881.
For comparison, the average temperature for Christmas in Spokane is 33 degrees. But the warmest recorded temperature on Christmas Day occurred in 1980 when the thermometer peaked at 53 degrees.
But who needs snow when you can have rain? Starting at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and spanning until the day after Christmas, Butler said the Spokane region can expect anywhere from one-third of an inch to two-thirds of an inch of rain.
After last week’s powerful windstorm that threw gusts of 75 mph at the Spokane International Airport, some may be rightfully concerned about a repeat.
“It doesn’t look particularly windy at all,” Butler said.
“Christmas Eve, we could see some gusts up to like 25 miles per hour out of the southwest, in the afternoon, but that is nothing compared to what we saw last Wednesday.”
Butler said this is the third consecutive year Spokane won’t see any snow for Christmas. Over the last 70 years, Spokane has been without snow on Christmas 26 times. Twelve of those 26 times have occurred after the year 2000.
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 8:02 PM Pacific-timezone USA Friday 12/26/2025
