Mother Nature made sure eastern Washington and northern Idaho had a white Christmas, albeit late. The conditions made driving slippery and even hazardous.
The National Weather Service reported 4.2” of snow fell on Spokane in a late afternoon/evening storm. It's reportedly the second-snowiest Christmas in Spokane's recorded history, falling an inch short of the 1998 record.About a half inch of that fell after midnight. Some of that fell in the form of sleet and freezing rain.
Weather spotters around the region reported varying amounts of snow. In the Palouse, snow ranged from .3" in Albion to Moscow's 1.8". Moses Lake reported 1". The Okanogan Valley ranged from 1" in Tonasket to 2.5" in Omak. About 4" fell in the Wenatchee area. Closer to Spokane, 2-3" fell in Kootenai County, 1.5" in Newport, 5" in Kootenai, Idaho.
In the Spokane area, snow depths vary, from 1.5" reported in Mead to 7" at Newman Lake.
The snow forced the brief closure of the eastbound lanes of Snoqualmie Pass in the early evening, due to spinouts near North Bend, about 35 miles east of Seattle. The state Department of Transportation is reporting snow flurries at Snoqualmie on Saturday morning and overcast skies or light snow at the other passes.