As we are nearing the end of December, The weather in Eastern Idaho is much more calm with sunshine and cold temperatures. But the month did not start out that way.
On December 17th the National Weather Service in Pocatello issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Pocatello and surrounding areas for destructive winds of 80 miles per hour. Some areas saw even higher wind gusts as the cold front quickly approached Western Wyoming.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Tim Axford explains how the mid December wind storm played a significant role with a powerful cold front and warm temperatures ahead of the front.
“The cold front that came through, we were so warm ahead of that, and so when we had cold air coming through that made that cold front truly dynamic and a lot more potent than we typically see for this time of year.”
“Storms rolling through 70 mile an hour, 80 mile an hour plus winds, and then that kind of cleared out.
“We had the thunderstorms pass through and it cleared out. We got some sunshine and that actually reinvigorated even more wind gusts behind that initial cold front. And so we had two rounds and that can wreak havoc on our infrastructure.”
Cold fronts in Idaho are a normal thing and is a boundary of cold air. But the combination of very warm temperatures ahead of the front, along with its fast rate of speed, made this front very powerful.
“Cold fronts, we get dynamic cold fronts and especially this time of year, if we’ve been a little warmer, we’ll see those cold fronts move through with some vigor. However, this one we were a lot warmer ahead of it than we typically are this time of year. And then we dropped down pretty, pretty cool behind it. And so that combination of factors led for lead to it being so much stronger in nature. So on average we are seeing these type of winds once every 5 to 6 years for an event like this. “
Not only has the wind blown Eastern Idahoans away this month, but several areas such as Pocatello, Idaho falls and other location have broken several temperature records. Pocatello had four calendar days in December of record breaking temperatures. Idaho Falls broke records for eight days in the month. This is leaving folks wondering why most of December has felt so warm?
“The jet stream has been a little bit further north of us, and so that’s allowed our our door to warmer and wetter conditions to kind of push in from California into our area.”
While we are still early into the winter season, Axford says the winter season looks like it will be wet and warmer than average. As we are in a weak la nina pattern for the winter. But weather conditions can still change and no two la ninas are the same.
“Records that have been broken have been pretty warm for Decembers. This one has even gone above and beyond.”