A history of winter (DJF) days of 60F+ at Detroit

[michsnowfreak]

Wanted to go back and look at all the days that hit 60F and above at Detroit in Dec, Jan, or Feb. Is it rare? Yes. Unheard of? Absolutely not. Any subtle trends showing that its more or less common now to get a 60F+ winter day then back in the "old days"? No.

It's interesting that many winters that are considered mild, horrible winters for snowlovers had no 60F+ days, as well as many winters that are considered awesome cold, snowy winters had some 60F+ days. Overall, a 60F+ day has absolutely zero correlation to what kind of winter it is. I also included that months snowfall.

There have officially been a cumulative total of 103 days of 60F+ in DJF at Detroit since 1874

DECEMBER - 47 times (27 different years)

65F – Dec 31, 1875….?

60F – Dec 13, 1881….3.4” snow

60F – Dec 08, 1889….0 snow

61F – Dec 24, 1889

65F – Dec 29, 1889

60F – Dec 25, 1893…16.6” snow

60F – Dec 01, 1922…14.2” snow

62F – Dec 11, 1931….1.3” snow

61F – Dec 15, 1933….6.6” snow

64F – Dec 04, 1941….3.4” snow

60F – Dec 05, 1941

60F – Dec 08, 1946….5.3” snow

61F – Dec 12, 1949….4.7” snow

60F – Dec 03, 1951…24.0” snow

62F – Dec 05, 1951

62F – Dec 04, 1953….5.0” snow

62F – Dec 06, 1956….5.4” snow

60F – Dec 31, 1965….1.6” snow

66F – Dec 08, 1966…14.7” snow

61F – Dec 21, 1967….4.5” snow

64F – Dec 01, 1970….9.8” snow

60F – Dec 03, 1970

64F – Dec 10, 1971….2.6” snow

60F – Dec 15, 1971

65F – Dec 14, 1975…19.8” snow

62F – Dec 01, 1982….1.4” snow

67F – Dec 02, 1982

68F – Dec 03, 1982

60F – Dec 05, 1982

64F – Dec 25, 1982

60F – Dec 28, 1982

65F – Dec 16, 1984….6.2” snow

64F – Dec 28, 1984

63F – Dec 29, 1984

60F – Dec 08, 1991….8.6” snow

61F – Dec 02, 1998....1.2" snow

65F – Dec 03, 1998

62F – Dec 04, 1998

65F – Dec 05, 1998

69F – Dec 06, 1998

60F – Dec 04, 1999….4.0” snow

60F – Dec 04, 2001….4.9” snow

67F – Dec 05, 2001

62F – Dec 06, 2001

62F – Dec 27, 2008…21.4” snow

63F – Dec 03, 2012…?

63F – Dec 04, 2012

JANUARY - 24 times (16 different years)

65F – Jan 01, 1876…..?

62F – Jan 02, 1876

66F – Jan 11, 1890…..1.6” snow

63F – Jan 12, 1890

64F – Jan 20, 1906…..7.3” snow

65F – Jan 21, 1906

62F – Jan 22, 1906

60F – Jan 19, 1907…12.7” snow

61F – Jan 24, 1909…11.4” snow

61F – Jan 27, 1916…..1.1” snow

61F – Jan 25, 1944…..1.9” snow

64F – Jan 26, 1944

62F – Jan 06, 1946…..6.4” snow

61F – Jan 13, 1950…..9.5” snow

67F – Jan 25, 1950

63F – Jan 17, 1952…12.0” snow

62F – Jan 08, 1965…..7.1” snow

61F – Jan 23, 1967…..5.4” snow

60F – Jan 25, 1967

60F – Jan 31, 1989…..5.3” snow

62F – Jan 13, 1995….13.1” snow

61F – Jan 04, 1997….14.0” snow

64F – Jan 07, 2008….13.8” snow

61F – Jan 08, 2008

FEBRUARY - 32 times (21 different years)

60F – Feb 28, 1880…..?

64F – Feb 19, 1884…11.4” snow

63F – Feb 04, 1890…..4.0” snow

62F – Feb 08, 1900…28.0” snow

60F – Feb 23, 1906…..1.6” snow

60F – Feb 16, 1921…14.2” snow

61F – Feb 20, 1930…..6.2” snow

63F – Feb 21, 1930

65F – Feb 22, 1930

65F – Feb 25, 1930

61F – Feb 11, 1932…..9.5” snow

62F – Feb 26, 1932

63F – Feb 13, 1938…..4.8” snow

60F – Feb 23, 1943…..2.7” snow

68F – Feb 26, 1944…11.1” snow

66F – Feb 15, 1954…10.4” snow

66F – Feb 25, 1957…..8.9” snow

64F – Feb 15, 1976…..4.9” snow

62F – Feb 18, 1976

65F – Feb 25, 1976

64F – Feb 26, 1976

63F – Feb 27, 1976

63F – Feb 29, 1976

64F – Feb 23, 1984…..8.7” snow

63F – Feb 13, 1990…11.1” snow

63F – Feb 19, 1994…17.1” snow

61F – Feb 21, 1997…..4.5” snow

70F – Feb 11, 1999…..7.8” snow

62F – Feb 12, 1999

62F – Feb 23, 2000…..8.1” snow

69F – Feb 26, 2000

61F – Feb 25, 2002…..6.7” snow

DJF temps of 60F+ per winter

1875-76….3 times (Dec 31-Jan 2)

1879-80….1 time (Feb 28)

1881-82….1 time (Dec 13)

1883-84….1 time (Feb 19)

1889-90….6 times (Dec 8, 24, 29; Jan 11-12; Feb 4)

1893-94….1 time (Dec 25)

1905-06….4 times (Jan 20-22; Feb 23)

1906-07….1 time (Jan 19)

1908-09….1 time (Jan 24)

1915-16….1 time (Jan 27)

1920-21….1 time (Feb 16)

1922-23….1 time (Dec 1)

1931-32….3 times (Dec 11; Feb 11, 26)

1933-34….1 time (Dec 15)

1937-38….1 time (Feb 13)

1941-42….2 times (Dec 4-5)

1942-43….1 time (Feb 23)

1943-44….3 times (Jan 25-26; Feb 26)

1945-46….1 time (Jan 6)

1946-47….1 time (Dec 8)

1949-50….3 times (Dec 12; Jan 13, 25)

1951-52….3 times (Dec 3, 5; Jan 17)

1953-54….2 times (Dec 4; Feb 15)

1956-57….2 times (Dec 6; Feb 25)

1964-65….1 time (Jan 8)

1965-66….1 time (Dec 31)

1966-67….3 times (Dec 8; Jan 23, 25)

1967-68….1 time (Dec 21)

1970-71….2 times (Dec 1, 3)

1971-72….2 times (Dec 10, 15)

1975-76….7 times (Dec 14; Feb 15, 18, 25-27, 29)

1982-83….6 times (Dec 1-3, 5, 25, 28)

1983-84….1 time (Feb 23)

1984-85….3 times (Dec 16, 28-29)

1988-89….1 time (Jan 31)

1989-90….1 time (Feb 13)

1991-92….1 time (Dec 8)

1993-94….1 time (Feb 19)

1994-95….1 time (Jan 13)

1996-97….2 times (Jan 4, Feb 21)

1998-99….7 times (Dec 2-6; Feb 11-12)

1999-00….3 times (Dec 4; Feb 23, 26)

2001-02….4 times (Dec 4-6; Feb 25)

2007-08….2 times (Jan 7-8)

2008-09….1 time (Dec 27)

2012-13….2 times (Dec 3-4)

[dmc76]

Nice work Freak!

Jan 99' Arguably the best month of winter in my life time had the most 60+days. That should be encouraging

[michsnowfreak]

Nice work Freak!

Jan 99' Arguably the best month of winter in my life time had the most 60+days. That should be encouraging

Thanks I got the idea to do this the other day when I heard murmurings about how torches like this are becoming more and more commonplace, and they almost never used to happen, blah blah... so I HAD to look up the data myself! As tiresome as it gets hearing the weather fairytales about what IS happening and what USED to happen (every, single time we get warm and/or snowless period of winter), it gives me new ideas for weather data research! (I have all the data stored on my computer so its pretty quick and easy to access stuff like this and get the cold, hard facts down).

By the way, 1998-99 was tied with the snowy winter of 1975-76 for most 60F+ winter days (7).

[DAFF]

Safe to say warmth can sometimes be related to snow outbrakes and extreme cold too.

[Chicago WX]

Nice work Josh.

I've been working on a winter stats project for Indianapolis, similar to my ORD one, and found that the majority of Decembers have at least one 60º+ max temperature at IND. To be exact, 45 out of the last 69 Decembers have had at least one. Haven't finished January or February yet, but I'll post the results when I get them.

[stormtrackertf]

Very nice compilation. Just goes to show you how quickly things can change in Michigan, especially looking at 1998/1999. What an incredible stretch of warm weather to have lived though just to be dumped on with snow less than a month later.

Also, even though it wasn't an official 60 degree reading, I recall on New Years Day 2005 it made it up to 59°F just before and after midnight, and we all know how good that winter was (with a very white Christmas!)

[Hoosier]

There's a noticeable increase in the number of December 60 degree days. Only 20 in the 92 years between 1875 and 1967 with 27 in just 45 years since then.

[michsnowfreak]

Very nice compilation. Just goes to show you how quickly things can change in Michigan, especially looking at 1998/1999. What an incredible stretch of warm weather to have lived though just to be dumped on with snow less than a month later.

Also, even though it wasn't an official 60 degree reading, I recall on New Years Day 2005 it made it up to 59°F just before and after midnight, and we all know how good that winter was (with a very white Christmas!)

Yeah...one thing though, keep in mind this data is merely for official data. Many, many other DJF days in the last 138 years were officially 58-59F which means it is likely someone in the area could have hit 60F.

[michsnowfreak]

There's a noticeable increase in the number of December 60 degree days. Only 20 in the 92 years between 1875 and 1967 with 27 in just 45 years since then.

Good catch. Although some of it has to do with a few years hogging many days (esp 1982 and 1998). January was the opposite, only 5 of the 24 have come after 1967.

[ORH_wxman]

There's a noticeable increase in the number of December 60 degree days. Only 20 in the 92 years between 1875 and 1967 with 27 in just 45 years since then.

OTOH, 9 in the 1980s, 7 in the 1990s, 4 in the 2000s....? in the 2010s

[michsnowfreak]

OTOH, 9 in the 1980s, 7 in the 1990s, 4 in the 2000s....? in the 2010s

Basically the bottom line is...a winter torch means absolutely NOTHING in the grand scheme of things for a winter season. I remember the 62F day in Dec 2008...we had 6" of snow on the ground in the morning and piles by evening...not a week later the ground was recovered and soon reburied. Some of our mildest, most snow-free winters did not register a single 60F day.

Heres an interesting stat I just now realized....

This will be the 46th winter (in 140 years) that Detroit has a 60F+ day in meteorological winter. The first 2 years are before accurate snowfall data existed. And of course this snow season has just begun. So....of the 43 remaining winters on that list...only 17 had below normal snowfall!!!

[michsnowfreak]

Nice work Josh.

I've been working on a winter stats project for Indianapolis, similar to my ORD one, and found that the majority of Decembers have at least one 60º+ max temperature at IND. To be exact, 45 out of the last 69 Decembers have had at least one. Haven't finished January or February yet, but I'll post the results when I get them.

Thanks For my next project I will have to do something else snow related. Ive fulfilled my quota of non-snow winter data

[Hoosier]

Thanks For my next project I will have to do something else snow related. Ive fulfilled my quota of non-snow winter data

Wait til you see what I have been working on. About as "off season" as you can get.

[Chicago WX]

Wait til you see what I have been working on. About as "off season" as you can get.

Very off season.