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December 2011 General Discussion/Obs Part 2


Chicago Storm

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People at work are attributing the lack of snow with climate change. Some heated debates lately in the break room and while working. Funny how easily people can forget the tornado watches of January 7-8, 2008. Ain't even that either. I'm a big advocate of the F2 tornado on December 12, 1946 just a half hour drive southwest of here.

Luckily I havent heard that, but Im sure its being brought up. *sigh*. Yup, this lack of snow is due to climate change. Mind asking some of them what they attribute all the above normal snow in recent years to? Because climate change doesnt happen overnight. (actually lol they may be the same ones who attributed heavy snow in recent winters to the climate change, to some EVERYTHING that happens in the weather is climate change lol).

December 1881, 1889, and 1877 are by far the warmest Decembers our area has ever seen, in Dec 1889 NOT ONE flake of snow fell all month. Bring that up in the break room too :lol:

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The two/three Winters that we might be closing in on following could very well be 31-32, 71-72, and maybe 66-67 (tornado outbreak in Chicagoland, followed shortly thereafter by the historic blizzard). I think I threw out 1917-1918,1913-1914, and 1975-1976 in one of our analog threads with the above Winters... some are seeming like a good match and some are obviously not. You win some, you lose some.

As to this pattern, I'd be willing to bet many around here don't have an official 1" snowfall until around 1/10-1/17/2012. That would be my magic range to keep an eye on.

Interesting combo, on a purely sensible weather level, those 3 have very little in common here. 31-32 was literally the year without a winter (no real snow until Feb) and mega torch....66-67 had some torches but tons of snow/snowcover...71-72 was a pretty putrid snow year but nowhere near as torchy or barren as 31-32.

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Man, what a disaster the EURO is through D10.

I'm putting all my eggs in the "climo" basket, which dictates that this pattern has to flip at some point, but with each passing day it's hard not to get progressively discouraged. I had more snow to this date in 2001-02. :(

Pattern will flip. It always does. The million dollar question is when? Of course the answer for just about all of us is "not soon enough!". Had no measurable snow at this point in 2001 or 1998.

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Best part about this "winter" is going back and looking at all the Winter outlooks. Its quite comical. One started a trend and everyone followed, sort of like a heard of sheep. It just shows NO HUMAN is smarter then mother nature! She does what she wants.

unfortunately at this point shooting for average may be a challenge. Winters similar to this craptastic winter: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2006 and 2009,. Average in those crap starts: 46.9" not including 1998/99: 40.6". Seasons total 7.7" so far.

Its got to change at some point. Mother nature has tendencies to even things out. It cannot stay like this for 4-5 months straight. Common sense would think that change will occur but when? My feeling once it changes it will get very cold for a long time but what do I know.... This was my positive statement

The only 2 outlooks that had a mild Dec were Chicagowx's and Bill Deedlers. Deedler forecast a heavy backloaded winter as being a very strong possibility.

1997 actually had ok Nov/Dec snow (mainly Nov of all things), and Jan wasnt awful. It was thereafter that winter was horrible. But of all the years you posted, 1997-98 was the worst overall winter.

We have a very decent shot at hitting average snowfall here, because we arent that far off our average to date, and have more than 80% of our seasonal snowfall to come after December 20th. But for places up north, Im thinking their chances of above normal snow are very slim, simply because of the start. Keep in mind, hitting average snowfall isnt everything to a winter lover of course. Some years can have above average snowfall but never sustain a snowcover and other years have below normal snowfall but constant snowcover. So while I see above normal total snowfall as a likelihood for SE MI, I think the cross country skiier (who doesnt pay close attention to wx stats) will be sorely disappointed after last winter.

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I'm not a big fan of back loaded winters. I've actually become somewhat excited for the warmth that March has shown us the last few years. Something about being in a university town on st.pattys when theres no snow and 10+ degree weather (50F) :wub:

amen!

I live in a small university town as well.....nothing like that first sunny 70 degree day in march to bring out all those sun-starved bikini coeds.

assuming that's what you meant

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41F here... Feels so mild out there. Very little wind helps. A lot of times it gets "warm", but there is a 30 mph south wind attached...

This weather has been awesome this week for fishing the big lake from shore. Fish are stacked a long with the bait fish, its like fishing in barrel at times almost anywhere you go along the lakefront. Just an amazing world class trout fishery in downtown mke. Hopefully this beautiful weather holds for Christmas Day and we'll take the niece down to get her new fishing pole line wet and hopefully there is some south winds a blowing to whip a kite around.

so immune to no snow & cold now that I don't care if it ever snows or gets cold again until next winter in se wi. Furnace has kicked on 2 times that I know of in the last ten days and with nothing but 30's to near 40 it won't be firing up much in the future.

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