National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Winter Returns Across the Northern Tier; Record Warmth for the Southwest

A large high pressure system will usher in cold air for this first day of March across the northern Plains, Great Lakes, Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Some wintry precipitation may evolve across the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic through Monday. Meanwhile, record warmth will spread across the Southwest, southern Plains through early this week. Read More >

During the morning of March 12, 2008, an optical phenomena was visible in the eastern sky from Spokane, a parhelion, more commonly known as a sundog. These typically (but not always) for near sunrise and sunset when the sun is low in the sky and the atmosphere is filled with ice crystals, typically from cirrus clouds. Unlike rainbows, which appear in the sky opposite the sun, sundogs appear to the left and right of the sun. The sun's rays are reflected or refracted as they pass through the ice crystals, forming the sundogs.

Sun dog
Right peripheral
Left peripheral