TheClimateChanger

No idea what that is. But that heat was insane either way. It never even reached 99F or above there in the scorching summer of 1988. Altoona set an all-time high of 103F or 104F on that date too.

I can believe it. I was at Cedar Point on July 21, 2011. It was 102F at Toledo Express Airport and 105F at Toledo Executive Airport that day. Absolutely brutal. The next day reached 101F at DuBois - the first and only time [dating to 1963] that it has exceeded 98F there.

Let's hope this is wrong.

Also, on the topic of snowfall. Currently sixth lowest seasonal total [since 1880-1881]. Last year's total was eighth least but may drop to ninth (as shown below) if there is no additional significant snowfall this year. Limiting to snowfall records taken at one of the two airport sites (1935-1936 to present), makes it even worse. There had only been 3 years with less than 20" at either airport site (1937-1938, 1973-1974, and 1990-1991) and we are currently in danger of a second straight year with less than 20 inches. I blame @Burghblizz. He had noted we haven't had to deal with any 20" or less seasons shortly before the March 2018 storm were a lot of people were complaining about the lack of snowfall in recent winters. Of course, 2017-2018 had a crazy ending with 10.5" from the big storm and another 7.3" over the first few weeks of April. Now we've had two straight [likely], and just barely exceeded that total in 2019-2020.

When will be our first below normal month? Any guesses?

Similar story at CAK:

Number of days with 1"+ snow cover at MFD [dating to early 1950s]:

It's high time the NWS amends the description of climate in Mansfield, Ohio. There is not near continuous snow cover from December through March anymore. And daytime temperatures regularly exceed freezing in the winter. That would be considered absurd today. There's barely been 20 inches the last two winters combined. And 3 of the top 10 least snowy winters are in the last 5 years. I really believe Ohio is ground zero for climate change. Feels like it's warming faster in this region than anywhere on the planet.

Canton-Akron (CAK) Official records, since 1948: Manually expanded dataset back to 1893, including snowfall records from other sites in the threaded record that aren't included in the official record for some reason: Mansfield, OH (MFD) - extended back to 1892-1893, excluding several years with no or significant missing data

Some other snowfall futility notes. Currently, fourth least on record at Erie, PA. Note these values have been manually corrected by me. xMacis and the NWS CLE site [which uses the xMacis] has a bunch of random missing data mainly from the 1920s-1940s, where snowfall actually was observed. Looking at these values, it will be the first season with less than 40" since 1952-1953, and the first season with less than 30" since 1932-1933 [barring some late season magic]. In recent decades, the low to mid 40-inch range was the absolute minima at Erie Airport. In fact, if we narrow the search to the most recent 71 winters [dating back to 1953-1954] at the airport site, it's UGLY. The least amount of snow observed in the 70 years from 1953-1954 to 2022-2023 was 41.2 inches in 1982-83. Last year's 52.0 inches was sixth least in that stretch. This winter is at 24.8 inches. Wow.

Here's Lansing, Michigan snowfall records [earlier years at East Lansing, Michigan], excluding a few years with excessive missing data: Maybe a bit questionable that the very first year with data ranks as lowest. Looking at the monthly data, that looks mostly a function of the fact that precipitation was 25-50 percent of modern norms for the bulk of the cold season.

I said from Toledo to DTW airport. All of the records prior to the mid 1950s are from the city proper. Of course, it's a bit longer drive out to the airport. The snowfall records were retrieved from xMacis, which has nothing prior to 1890-91.

Interesting long-term data from Lake Mendota in Wisconsin.

Same story in Toledo, less than an hour drive from DTW airport. Of course, @michsnowfreaklikes to point out a 6.0" observation from the winter of 1889-1890, but I'm guessing that lacks daily resolution as it is not part of the threaded record, which begins in 1890-1891.

Same in Ohio. Just look at Cleveland the last two years. There hasn't been an above normal season since 2014-2015, and that was actually slightly below the normal in effect at the time [normal snowfall dropped several inches with the 1991-2020 update]. 2013-2014 was the last time a season came in above the existing normals. Note all of the low snow years were from the city office data. The heaviest snow occurs south and especially east of the city (see below), so we can conclude snowfall would have been heavier at the airport location. Of course, snowfall measurement procedure has also changed over that time frame. Of note, Alfred Hyde was a long time cooperative observer for the Smithsonian Institution who kept temperature, precipitation and snowfall records back to 1854-1855. His lowest snowfall winter was 1865-66 with 21.6 inches. Looking at this, we can conclude only one year on record had substantially less snow than last winter dating all the way back to the mid 19th century: 1918-1919. The other two years with less (1931-1932, 1865-1866) were minor differences (1.2 inches, and 0.1 inches, respectively). Also of note, prior to last winter, there had never been less than 30 inches observed in a season since records moved to the airport [around 1940, give or take a year]. The last time less than 30 inches was observed was 1932-1933. There is a good chance that metric is about to be exceeded for the second consecutive winter, barring some late season action.

Seems unlikely that he's had ten years under 24 inches. The official records at Portland, which date to 1881, show the lowest annual total at 27.5 inches.

Interesting. I just checked Pittsburgh, which is still on track for two consecutive seasons of 20” or less. Looks like it’s only happened once dating back to 1879, but it was three seasons in a row (1930-31, 1931-32, and 1932-33). Of course, that was when observations were still downtown at the city office, which is about 400’ lower in elevation and averaged about a foot less than at the airport (although some of that is probably attributable to changes in observation procedure). Prior to last year, there had only been three years since then with less than 20” (1937-38, 1973-74 & 1990-91).

Perhaps most insane is the 47.9F mean at Jefferson County Airport, at more than 1800 feet elevation, would be third warmest on record at low-elevation Harrisburg in the southern part of the State!

At DuBois, the first 17 days of March have been 2F warmer than the same period in any of the year since records began in 1963: At Bradford, the first 17 days of March have been 2.7F warmer than the same period in any other year dating back to 1958:

In what has become a common refrain, yet another scorching start to the month in the Commonwealth. Harrisburg Williamsport Erie Philadelphia Pittsburgh

Second warmest start to the month, through yesterday.

This is a good discussion for the banter thread. Much more topical than most posts that are made in the banter threads.

The so-called hottest summer on record was downright pleasant in Detroit outside of a single week. Even including the 7-day heat wave, it was a moderate summer and fairly mild by modern standards. The mean temperature of 71.2F places 57th in the threaded record. In the past 9 years, only 2015 & 2023 have been cooler (and both by very small margins). By contrast, 2016 was nearly 4F warmer than 1936! And to be honest, it makes much more sense to compare this to records observed at City Airport (DET) since that it was where the official temperatures were observed in 1936. On that metric, it was the 27th COLDEST summer out of 90 years of records. Incredibly, removing one 7-day stretch would drop the summertime mean to 69.9F. I know you can't do this, but it gives a much better reading of the overall character of the summer. And that was one of low humidity and generally mild weather, with cool overnight lows, punctuated by a few episodes of extreme heat, including one colossal 7-day stretch in early to mid-July. At these levels, you'd be looking at the 12th coolest of 90 years at DET and 44th coolest of 150 years in the threaded Detroit area records. The 59.5F mean summer minimum is 5th lowest on record, out of 90 years' worth of observations at Detroit City Airport. That value has not been exceeded in recent decades since the volcanically cooled summer of 1992, and even then only by a negligible amount [59.3F]. In the threaded record, it's only 26th coldest of 150 years, as the coldest minima are dominated by the 1960s-1980s records from DTW when it radiated like a freezer at night [developed in low density suburb]. Still pretty cold either way. Ignoring the 7-day inferno [July 8-July 14], the mean minima the rest of the summer was just 58.4F, which would easily be the coldest on record at DET and would tie 1875 for 10th coldest in the threaded record. Regarding the heat wave, you can pull up the old records and see the humidity and dry bulb temperatures at 3 periods each day. The mean dewpoint was probably around 55-55.5F, based on those observations. This is less than even the "frigid" July of 2009 when the average dewpoint at Detroit was a comfortable 56.3F. During the worst of the heat wave, humidity was generally very low. Under these conditions, the heat index would not greatly vary from the dry bulb temperature. Despite the extreme temperatures, there have been more dangerous conditions in recent summers when factoring in the cumulative effect of high dewpoints and temperatures. The most extreme heat indices in Detroit were experienced not in 1936, but in 1995, when triple digit temperatures were combined with dewpoints nearing 80F - rather than in the 50s. The combination of generally moderate temperatures and very low humidity would have made the summer of 1936 more comfortable than the majority of recent summers in Detroit. If those same conditions repeated this year, and I tried to point out the upper 90s/100s as the result of climate change, you would no doubt change tune and attempt to rebut my assertion by going on about how cool and dry it was for the majority of the summer.