Light flurries Monday in Boise. More snow on the way this week

Snow flurries hit the Treasure Valley in the late morning Monday, but forecasters don’t think there will be much accumulation on the ground when it wraps up this afternoon.

“If it does accumulate, it’ll be less than a half inch,” said Katy Branham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boise. The temperature early Monday afternoon was hovering around 33 degrees.

The flurries are expected to end before the afternoon commute, she said. More snow is on the way Tuesday evening into Wednesday.

The next system will be bringing a bit more snow — perhaps up to an inch in the Valley and 3 to 6 inches at Bogus Basin. The ski area, which currently has 22 inches at the base, opened last Thursday. That was 20 days earlier than last year, the Statesman’s Chadd Cripe reported in a story on the opening weekend.

“These things always have a way of surprising us,” said Branham, who described it as a minor to moderate storm.

Boise still has snow on the ground from a storm from Dec. 1 and 2. That storm dumped a total of 3.8 inches at the airport over those two days, according to Weather Service data.

Will we have a white Christmas — either from fresh snow or snow on the ground? The forecast shows a high this Sunday in the lower 40s, Branham said. So the snow on the ground may be disappearing, and it’s unclear whether there will be any new snow to replace it.

The average monthly temperature for December this year is 26.4 degrees, about six degrees colder than normal. The high temperature so far this month is 40 degrees, and that was Dec. 1.

Holiday travelers should be prepared to encounter snowy conditions, particularly in the mountains. Check the Idaho Transportation Department’s 511.gov website or call 5-1-1 for information on highway conditions.

Katy Moeller: 208-377-6413

This story was originally published December 10, 2018 at 1:59 PM.