By Daniel Hein
Contributor 

2019 saw eastern Adams County weather records

 

Last updated 1/30/2020 at 9:32am



Weather-wise 2019 was a year to be remembered for some record breaking cold and also record breaking snow in eastern Adams County. The following summary uses data obtained from both the Ritzville and Lind Experiment Station NWS cooperative weather reporting sites as well as information gathered elsewhere. The cooperative site information was obtained from the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) located north of Reno, Nevada, and is available online at wrcc.dri.edu. WRCC records for Ritzville date to 1916 and to 1931 for the Lind station.

After a warmer than average January, February gave us a real taste of winter from the first week. At both cooperative sites it was the snowiest February of record with 13.2 inches at Ritzville and 17.6 inches at Lind. It was the coldest February since 1956 at both stations.

The cold continued into the middle of March with a much warmer second half. However, it was not warm enough to keep the Ritzville station from recording its coldest March of record. At Lind, it was the coldest since 1955 and second coldest of record.

April and May were relatively benign, but a nearly stationary thunderstorm on May 28, just south of I-90 near milepost 213, brought 2 inches of rain in about 40 minutes, as reported at a farmhouse nearby. This was enough to plug a culvert on Anderson Road north of Heinemann Road and subsequently wash out the road.

The summer brought nothing unusual, but September will be remembered for the first recorded measurable snowfall in Ritzville history with 0.2 inches officially recorded on Sept. 29, as reported by the Spokane NWS office. Out of town, some locations reported a bit more. To the northeast, Davenport measured 1.3 inches, also a record. September was also much wetter than average and was the dampest at Ritzville since 1959 and at Lind since 1982.

Temperatures moderated a bit to start October, but by the end of the month cooled considerably. It ended up being the coldest October of record at both Ritzville and Lind, as well as much of the rest of the Inland Northwest, parts of Montana and south into the Great Basin.

As wet as September was, November was dry. It was the driest at both stations since 1993 and the second driest since 1976 at Ritzville.

December was considerably warmer than average, but didn’t keep the year as a whole from being colder than average by a degree or two. Rainfall and melted snow totaled close to average at both stations. Total precipitation at Ritzville was 12.71 inches, where the long-term mean is 11.34 inches. The Lind station reported 9.29 inches, where the long-term mean is 9.67 inches.

 

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