Winter 2001-2002 vs Winter 2011-2012

[tamarack]

Yeah. Assuming nothing changes (which is a pretty big assumption), this winter is in essentially 2001-02 without the lone snowstorm, thereby allowing it to surpass 2001-02 on the hall of shame rankings.

2009-10 is stil king of crap though. We'd have to be in spring weather from here on out for 2011-12 to touch 2009-10.

Totally agree on 09-10. That winter lasted only 3 weeks here, from the 12/9 snowstorm to when the retro-bomb turned super mild on 1/3. The rest of the "winter" featured a major January torch-deluge, followed almost immediately by 25 days (most in Feb, normally our snowiest month) without measurable snow, and the incredible 46 consecutive days with above normal temps 2/8 thru 3/25. And to twist the knife further, while we were setting warmth and no-snow records, places a few hundred miles away were colder than normal while smashing all time snowfall records.

This winter looks to be slightly worse (similar snowfall and a bit less cold) than 01-02. However, 05-06 was much worse up here, and would've challenged 09-10 but for the latter season's "joy" of watching 3 KU storms give us nary a flake and the 4th produce some sort-of-white slop that only a very generous person would call "snow".

[The_Global_Warmer]

The middle 2000s were all equally pathetic here. Then towards the end we had higher snow winters. Even the 3rd most snow on record last year. But you wouldn't have guessed if you weren't told. Because the snow Cover, never stays. Since the mid 90s on, snow cover has dramatically plummeted. Snow fall or not, 8 inches or 2 inches, it's always gone.

This season is up there with some recent big ones. We have had snow cover for 2-3 days and 6 inches total. 6 inches in the past could still bring us 7-10 days of snow cover. Like a 2-4" snow then a 15-20 day cold spell with highs below freezing most of it. And a couple of light reinforcement snows. And we have our 2-3 week winter with the rest mild or dry and cold. The amount of times here real decent systems run into a large wide cold dome keeps dwindling.

If we get a -NAO/-AO for an extended period, we can get something going for many events. We recently in 09/10 had snowfall on 30-40 days, and 15 were accumulating if only a 1/4 inch or an inch, to bigger snows. But again many times, it was gone by the next day, and this is in January and February.

It would be nice to have amazing blocking and have winters in the top 10 or top 20 for cold and not 30th and 36th.