While bad weather is sending the city and its residents into a spin, it’s sparking great ideas for business. The River Inn along Division is taking advantage of the snow to keep rural commuters in Spokane and off the bad roads.

Yesterday around 6 p.m. one of their employees plugged the words “Special Snow Rate” on their leader board. Almost immediately a couple from Deer Park asked for a room.

“For people who are in the outlying areas, they really don’t want to drive home,” Pam Scott, director of corporate communications, says. They started with the leader board and since then, they’ve published it to their social media.

“We’ve had four people ask for the snow special and it hasn’t even been 24 hours,” Scott added.

They’re offering the overnight stay snow special at $79.

This morning during our weather coverage we saw snow move around Spokane, a full circle without a flake in the downtown area. Our Facebook and Twitter were full of the same question, why is Spokane a donut of dryness?

It's dry air in our area, as in lower elevations. Think about it! Everytime you leave Spokane you have to climb a hill. It has to get saturated with moisture and that takes time. It takes about two hours to get 13,000 feet ready to release the snow.

Now that has been done we will see waves of snow move through the area through Friday. Have patience while driving, plan your trips. This system will be with us for awhile, no doubt talk of cold weather comfort food will start soon.

Few park-goers were seen in the South Hill park Friday morning except for a few brave dog owners.

It was a little chilly in the mid 20s with frost covering the grass. Patches of fog were expected around Spokane. One thick patch of fog was found resting over Manito Park on Friday morning, but beyond 14th Avenue, it dissipated.

A light wind will continue through out the day continuing into the evening. It's expected to be mostly cloudy with temperatures dipping into the low 20s.

Share: See a moment of "weather" happening around you? Send a photo to news4@kxly.com.