Is it spring yet? It doesn’t feel like it. Boise breaks 124-year-old weather record

It’s been more than five months in the making, but Boise has finally broken a weather record that has stood since the 19th century.

On Nov. 1, 2022, the sun rose above the City of Trees, sending down rays to produce a beautiful day of 64 degrees. Later that evening, rain clouds moved into the area and temperatures dropped to 41.

We haven’t seen temperatures rise above 60 degrees in Boise since — and with Wednesday marking 154 days in a row, the city has a new record. The year 1899 saw a streak of 153 such days end.

It’s a hard stat to stomach for many Boiseans, who just last summer endured the most days hotter than 100 degrees in city history.

“We’ve had a trough of low pressure over the West Coast, basically since December,” Korri Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boise, told the Idaho Statesman.

“We kept this cold upper-level trough over the area. So that’s got cold air in the trough, and that’s just been pulling cold air from the north down towards us.”

Since the turn of the new year, the upper-level trough over the Pacific Northwest has resulted in extreme weather for Boise. Here’s what’s happened in March alone:

• March 1 marked the meteorological end of winter. This winter — December through February — ranked as the fifth-snowiest since 2000 and featured colder-than-average temperatures.

• On March 10, Boise recorded its 13th straight day with measurable snow, breaking a record that had stood since 1933.

• Boise picked up 2.9 inches of snow on March 30, marking a rare late-March snowstorm that almost matched the 3.2 inches that fell on March 30, 1905.

• The average high temperature for March was a chilly 47.7 degrees, far below the historical average of 55.5 degrees. The average temperature for the month was 39.1, falling short of the historical average of 45.2.

But, believe it or not, the end could be in sight.

The Weather Service is forecasting a high of 58 on Friday. Saturday’s high is forecast to be 63, and it is supposed to hit 70 on Sunday.

“We kind of lose that cold air coming into the area from that trough, and we’ll get more of a southern-southwest flow next week,” Anderson said. “So that’ll bring in some warmer air from the subtropics, so that’ll help us get warm early next week.”

Assuming the forecasts remain accurate and Boise breaks the 60-degree barrier on Saturday, the new record of consecutive days without hitting 60 will stand at 156.