A Snow Total/Climate Update

Over the past couple of months I’ve been charting the progression of snow totals for about 30 different cities across the Midwest and Ohio Valley area. I thought now that the weather has calmed down again, it would be a good time to revisit that information. (I’ve also put some noteworthy deficits in there as well). For the most part the data is of yesterday afternoon.

Kansas City: 3.1″ (-10.9″) [4.5" is our record low for a snow season]

Columbia, MO 6.6″
St Louis: 6.3″
Chicago-O-Hare: 15.7″
Des Moines: 16.3″
Goodland: 16.8″
Dodge City: 7.7″
Minneapolis, MN: 15.3″ (-21.2″) [2nd warmest winter so far behind 2001-02]
Green Bay: 20.4″ [-15"]
Detroit, MI: 21.6″
Indianapolis, IN: 9.1″
Paducah, KY: .7″
Hastings, NE: 22.5″ {+4.5″!!!)
Little Rock, AR: 2.2″
Amarillo, TX: 12.3″
International Falls, MN: 32.3″ (-19″)
Marquette, MI: 100.5″ [-35"]
North Platte, NE: 15.6″
Rapid City, SD: 21.2″ {+1″}
Sioux Falls, SD: 9.1″ (-18.8″)
Buffalo, NY: 29.1″ (-42″)
Syracuse, NY: 36.2″ (-55″) Last year as of 2/15: 143.7″(!)
Albany, NY: 13.9″ (-27.1″)
Cleveland, OH: 32″
Alpena, MI: 28.5″ (-29.6″)
Oklahoma City, OK: 1.8″
Columbus, OH: 11.9″
Bismarck, ND: 5.9″ (-27.1″)
Fargo, ND: 12″
Midland, TX: 19.5″
El Paso, TX: 3.2″

It’s awfully tough to find many cities with a surplus of snowfall. Denver is one of them. Their average snow through FEB I think is 35.3″. So they are healthily above average. for the season overall they average 57.5″. It should be noted that their weather observations changed a few years ago with the new airport by some 13 miles. Snowfall there does vary rather widely.

I saw this yesterday on the NOAA January Climate report bulletin. If you’re wondering where winter has been, go to the other side of the hemisphere. Europe has had it bad this year. Comparing snow totals there and across the USA, it a look at polar opposites. here is what they had to say.

“Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during January was slightly above average, with large differences between the North American and Eurasian land areas. Eurasia had its ninth largest snow cover extent in the 46-year period of record, where cold and snowy conditions dominated across central and Eastern Europe, as well as much of China. North America had its third smallest January snow cover extent, where much of the United States and southern Canada were warmer and drier than average, limiting snow cover.”

Finally, as you know, despite the snow from a couple of days ago, we’re still about 1.4″ away from the lowest winter snow season in our history. So what do you want to happen over the next month or so. Do we go for the record or not? Take my poll and I’ll use the results over the weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Joe