Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,606
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    ArlyDude
    Newest Member
    ArlyDude
    Joined

2011/12 Snowiest winter of record; 2012-01-09 biggest snowstorm of record


Recommended Posts

CAVEAT: Records for Midland KMAF begin only in 1930.

KMAF "normally" receives 5.2 inches of snow per winter. In a subtropical semiarid climate with a winter climatological dry season, it's hard to expect much more.

This winter already would be a memorable one at KMAF (Midland, Texas) after both of these snow storms:

2.5 inches: 4-7 December 2011

6.4 inches: 23-26 December 2011, the 5th greatest snowstorm on record

That's a total of 8.9 inches, good enough for 10th place all-time for an entire season (and now 3rd place for one month).

But today, KMAF has a total of 10.4 inches and still snowing. To put that in perspective, the previous all-time record for a single storm was 9.8 inches on 11 December 1998. December 1998 held the record for the snowiest month on record with those 9.8 inches.

That makes January 2012 the snowiest month of all time.

Until today, the snowiest season ever in KMAF was 1946/47 with 13.9 inches.

Add the snowfall totals for December 2011 and January 2012 to get a whopping 19.3 inches.

==========

Great. Now, what other major or mid-size American cities have seen more snow this season? Let's see if I can find one.

New York		 (NYC):  2.9 inches
Los Angeles	  (CQT):	  none
Chicago		  (ORD):  1.9 inch
Philadelphia	 (PHL):  0.5 inch
Miami			(MIA):	  none
Dallas		   (DFW):	  none
Boston		   (BOS):  1.0 inch
Washington	   (DCA):  0.2 inch
Detroit		  (DTW):  6.7 inches
Houston		  (HOU):	  none
Atlanta		  (ATL): trace
San Francisco	(SFD):	  none
Phoenix		  (PHX):	  none
Seattle		  (SEA): trace
San Diego		(SAN):	  none
Minneapolis	  (MSP): 10.3 inches
Saint Louis	  (STL):  2.0 inches
Baltimore		(BWI): trace
Tampa			(TPA):	  none
Denver		   (DEN): 30.4 inches   *****WINNER******
Cleveland		(CLE): 10.6 inches
Pittsburgh	   (PIT):  7.6 inches
Portland		 (PDX):	  none
San Jose		 (SJC):	  none
Riverside		(RAL):	  none
Cincinnati	   (CVG):  0.7 inch
Virginia Beach   (ORF): trace
Sacramento	   (SAC):	  none
Kansas City	  (MCI):  0.1 inch
San Antonio	  (SAT):	  none
Las Vegas		(LAS):	  none
Milwaukee		(MKE):  1.7 inch
Indianapolis	 (IND):  3.2 inches
Providence	   (PVD):  2.3 inches
Orlando		  (MCO):	  none
Columbus		 (CMH):  0.9 inch
New Orleans	  (NEW):	  none
Buffalo		  (BUF):  5.5 inches
Memphis		  (MEM):  1.4 inches
Austin		   (ATT):	  none
Bridgeport	   (BDR):  4.0 inches
Salt Lake City   (SLC):  9.5 inches
Jacksonville	 (JAX):	  none
Louisville	   (SDF): trace
Hartford		 (BDL): 12.3 inches
Richmond		 (RIC): trace
Charlotte		(CLT):	  none
Nashville		(BNA): trace
Oklahoma City	(OKC): trace
Tucson		   (TUS):	  none
Honolulu		 (HNL):	  none
Dayton		   (DAY):  2.9 inches
Rochester		(ROC):  7.3 inches
El Paso		  (ELP):  3.2 inches
Birmingham	   (BHM): trace
Omaha			(OMA):  7.6 inches
Albuquerque	  (ABQ):  4.3 inches
Allentown		(ABE):  6.8 inches
Springfield	  (CEF):   ?
Akron			(CAK):  4.5 inches
Sarasota		 (SRQ):	  none
Albany		   (ALY):  6.5 inches
Tulsa			(TUL): trace
Fresno		   (FAT):	  none
Concord		  (CCR):	  none
Raleigh		  (RDU):	  none
Grand Rapids	 (GRR):  9.8 inches
Mission Viejo	(OKB):	  none
New Haven		(HVN):   ?
McAllen		  (MFE):	  none
Toledo		   (TOL):  5.2 inches
Baton Rouge	  (BTR):	  none
Colorado Springs (COS): 16.3 inches
Worcester		(ORH): 16.5 inches
Charleston	   (CHS):	  none
Wichita		  (ICT):  0.4 inch
Columbia		 (CAE):	  none


I could go onward (and probably will), but it's late here. I already spot-checked the usual suspects. If I got them all, Midland now stands in 4th place nationally in a class of 256 major and mid-size cities (behind only Anchorage, Denver, and Pueblo). That's quite impressive, especially for so late in the season. So if y'all want to know where the snow is, ... head to southwest Texas!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's good to see that there is a spot on the map that can benefit from the big +AO pattern that we have been experiencing.

Several of the snowy Decembers there were during a +AO pattern. It must be the colder pocket of temperatures relative

to the means found over the SW combined with a active southern branch of the jet stream.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/monthly.ao.index.b50.current.ascii.table

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/maf/?n=cli_maf_pcpn_december_topten

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...