North Idaho Weather Patterns

My dad used to say, "Only fools and newcomers predict the weather in North Idaho." So, I kept my mouth shut about weather for most of my life, except to gripe. I have, however, reached a point of confidence where I can take my dad's words into the Twenty-First Century and adapt them to the times.

You can quote me now, "Whatever we have in North Idaho, we have a lot of it." I've said that frequently this year, especially in February and part of March when the sun came for an extended visit. Rather than enjoying its welcome presence, many of my friends began to fret after the third consecutive day of sunshine and blue skies.

"North Idaho is going to burn up this summer," began to reverberate among the masses. While enjoying rare February bike rides or hiking in the mountains and feeling no guilt whatsoever because of our nice weather, I'm sure I irritated a few folks, assuring them not to worry.

"Whatever we have in North Idaho we have a lot of it," I'd say. In my mind, every day that the sun shines in North Idaho is a gift that we will pay for dearly with more than enough gray, socked-in, miserable counterparts. So, I worked earnestly during those glorious times not to waste a single beautiful day.

It's been two weeks now, and we're experiencing gray, socked-in, wet weather here in North Idaho. After the first day when the skies let loose with torrents of water, Bill checked his rain gauge: 3.6 inches, and that was before dark. It rained the whole night. It's done a pretty fair job ever since. And we've got more than enough squishy mud to make walking miserable for several days beyond the last raindrop of this current series.

I don't know how much longer the rain will last, but I hope my friends have taken my obnoxious reminders to heart. I hope also that the next time the sun shines here for two days straight, they will simply enjoy the blessing with the knowledge that rain will surely return and provide us with drops aplenty.

If I'm wrong about this---as a developing oldtimer----I'll gladly take on the title of "fool."