Boise will see ‘significant’ rain heading into the weekend. It’s already here
Weather forecasters expect it to be a really wet Friday in Boise as Idaho gets hit by the edge of a storm system from nearby states.
The first round of precipitation started late Thursday afternoon and should last through about 5 a.m. Friday before weakening, Jackson Macfarlane, National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Idaho Statesman.
Those in the valley hoping to see the frozen precipitation will be disappointed, though.
“Boise, for the most part, is going to be too warm to see snow,” Macfarlane said by phone. “There might be a marginal chance for some wintry-mix-type stuff early this evening, but it should all fall as rain or liquid precipitation.”
A wintry mix is a combination of freezing rain, freezing drizzle or sleet, according to the National Weather Service.
Macfarlane said Bogus Basin and the tops of the Boise Foothills could see 5-7 inches of snow on Thursday night, but warned skiers not to get too excited, because much of it will be washed away by rain on Friday.
“As a warmer air mass moves in, it’s looking like it might switch over to either that wintry mix or rain,” he said.
A second round of rain is expected to hit the Boise area Friday afternoon and last into Saturday morning, according to Macfarlane.
“(Thursday) through Friday night, we’re looking at a pretty significant 0.3 to 0.5 inches” of rain, the meteorologist said.
Macfarlane said the source of the precipitation was tropical moisture lifted by a high-pressure system off the coast of California and pulled into the Pacific Northwest.
“Oregon and Washington are going to get a whole lot of precipitation,” he said. “It’s so much moisture that it’s reaching far enough inland to impact both Southwest Idaho, all the way up to far western Montana.”
Unfortunately for those hoping to see 2025’s final supermoon, it likely will be far too cloudy this weekend to catch a glimpse of it, according to the National Weather Service.
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM.
