February 5 morning

 Wow - we’re getting dumped on! No news from Doug on any grooming, but it’s supposed to keep snowing all day so it makes sense to wait. Jeff has plans to groom tonight after work if Doug needs the help.

After a couple of weeks of spring-like weather, the new snow is a welcome change. With permission from Lee Warnick, here’s his January Rexburg Weather recap, posted last Thursday:

	Rexburg Weather Group / January 2024 Summary

	Temperature High temperatures: 30.7 / 2.8 degrees above normal Low temperatures: 15.7 / 4.7 degrees above normal Highest wind gust: 50 mph on the 12th Number of windy days: 4     Normal: 3.5 Highest temperature: 47 on the 31st Lowest temperature: -17 on the 13th Daily temp records set: High  7    Low  2       • About two-thirds of January was El Niño-classic mild and dry, while the other one-third was good ol’ Rexburg winter cold and snowy. As far as temps, this ratio meant above-normal but not record-breaking averages for the month. We did bask in one of January’s four warmest-ever days with our 47-degree high yesterday (Jan. 31). It was our mildest January day in 21 years.    • As is often the case, an ultra-mild day ushers in a dramatic change in our weather pattern, but instead of cold and wet, this next spell will stay mild through the storminess, with high temps remaining above freezing.    • We often struggle to rise above freezing in winter, but four times between the 22nd and 28th our low temperature was 32 degrees! Not surprisingly, all of these were daily records for the warmest low temp. Precipitation Precipitation: 0.93 / 90 percent of average Snowfall: 16.8 / 116 percent of average 2023-24 water year precipitation (4 of 12 months): 3.69 / 89 percent of average 2023-24 season snowfall: 28.4  / 71 percent of normal Thunderstorm days: 0     Fog days: 23 Daily precip records set: Precip  1    Snow  1        • More than half of the snow we’ve received so far this season fell over just two weeks — Jan. 4-17 — about 16 inches.  Other than this very snowy spell, January’s precip came as rain or in a wet rain-snow mix.    • Going into January, we still were in contention for one of our least snowy seasons on record. Now it looks like we’re bound for a solidly below average total instead of a Top 5 or Top 10 least snowy kind of winter.    • If the sun of the past few days has seemed unusual, you’re right. January had 18 cloudy days, the most in the three years I’ve been tracking average daily cloud cover.       • Our 71 percent of normal snowfall so far this season is quite close to the high country snowpack totals, which currently average in the lows 70s in our corner of the state. The only exceptions are Birch/Medicine Lodge/Beaver/Camas (53%) and Willow/Blackfoot/Portneuf (112%).  This next week should bump those snowpack percentages upward.