So what happened to the heavy snow weather forecasters have been expecting?
National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Bodnar says the system that dumped on some parts of the Inland Northwest spared parts of Spokane.
“If you live on the north or northwest side of town, you hardly got any snow. So it’s a whole different story from one side of town to the other," Bodnar said. "Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, they got snow for hours, all through the morning, and there’s still some late snow falling right now.”
Bodnar says the forecast for tonight and Friday is dependent upon geography.
“So we have a band of light snow and rain pretty much set up across the southern part of the state right now and the Idaho Panhandle. That’s going to remain there for the next few hours," Bodnar said. "We’ve got a wave coming through, it’s going to push that back to the south a little bit and then another system comes up the coast tomorrow and takes that band of moisture and brings it back to the north.
"We’re going to see widespread precipitation develop over the entire region tomorrow," he said. "It’s going to be in the form of freezing rain for the central and western Columbia Basin and some of the valleys of the east slopes of the Cascades. Heavy snow up on the mountain passes as well as the northern counties. And then a transition from light to moderate snow over to rain for the eastern Columbia Basin.”
Bodnar says the Palouse could see heavy rain. They are worries about flooding there by Saturday.
He expects Spokane to see an overall snow accumulation of two or three inches. Parts of north Idaho and northwestern Montana could get 12-to-18 inches. The east slopes of the Cascades could also see that. The Methow Valley is forecast to get between eight inches and a foot.