Winter Letter Grade and What Did We Learn This Winter

[mackerel_sky]

I give it a B.There is a 95% chance we have seen the last winter event for most outside the mountains. I've learned the pacific trumps any and all good indices that should get us a wintry pattern and storms like: -nao,mjo phases 8,1,2,etc. I've seen it snow 3 times with temps between 41-44 degrees and accumulate ,so rates are more important than soil temp, sun angle and all that jazz. Lot better than last year

[lilj4425]

What I learned: Waycross hates snow and Wilkesboro loves threads. Oh and Brick Tamland is still confused.

[Dunkman]

D. I received less than half of my yearly snowfall (3.5" of a 9" average), a slight dusting of sleet and maybe .05" of freezing rain. Also, there was no substantial cold spell the entire winter. Hard to give a higher grade than that.

I learned that with this PDO and no Nino we are screwed.

[metalicwx366]

A. I received snow in March during the day.

I learned a ton this winter. Don't even know where to start so I wont say anything.

[Disc]

It was an okay winter. Had a few good storms a lot of others didn't get. The surprise 4-5" from Nemo that nobody around here got was fun.

[GaWx]

Winter's not over lol. We're in the midst of the best part now. It is definitely too early to grade it. However, I can already say that this winter has been far more interesting and fun to track than the last one. Due to the much colder late Feb. to March, it is a colder winter, regardless. Also, whereas last winter had zero wintry threats at KATL other than that two day period with snow flurries and the one cold snap in early Feb., this one has had a good number of wintry precip. threats since late Jan. Hardly a week at a time has gone over the last 6 without a threat of something wintry. So, it really is like night and day regardless of how it ends up and regardless that KATL is so far at the same total for snow as all of last winter (T). Also, thanks to Tony's molestorm, I saw my first snow AND graupel in three years! As a great bonus, I experienced the heaviest graupel of my life and one of the best walks in my entire life! I never knew that walking in the graupel could be such a blast.

Edit: I already kind of suspected that the MJO pretty much means squat as regards winter storm chances in the SE. However, my latest research confirmed that. Also, the Goofy cold bias has been very alive and well this winter lol. Finally, I learned (actually also kind of knew) that the naming of winter storms with silly names is silly.

[strongwxnc]

D for winter p-types

A for fansty storm totals

A for great disco provided by some awesome red taggers and non taggers

Like Larry stated winter might have a cold plate to serve up yet!

[calculus1]

I refuse to give a final grade until sometime in early April.  I need all the data to come in before I can judge it.

[WidreMann]

D for me. So much teasing. I don't mean GFS fantasy storms at 8-9 days, I mean storms that were in action and teased: early changeover to snow, but then it stopped and was drizzle for the rest of the storm, radar be damned. Or a day cold enough for good precip, but it only lasted a few hours, and then went and snowed 3" on Elizabeth City. Or the day it snowed all day and didn't accumulate here, but did 10 miles further east. We had several wintry events and they all sucked. As has also been pointed out, we had no real cold spells, only one day AOB freezing (with the help of clouds and wintry precip) and no non-marginal winter storms. So it was seasonably cold, on the dry side and a tease. I'd rather it be warm and wet.

[eyewall]

Even D as a final grade only because of the thundersnow chase go GSO. I would almost want give it an F after the "phantom snowstorm" and the tease from this storm but the F standard is pretty much last winter. 1.2" as a season total just doesn't cut it (especially when this is a relative minimum compared to surrounding areas). I am still waiting for my 3-5" from 1/17 when I hobbled out of it with 0.5" and ended as rain.

 

If I counted my VT trip I saw some amazing weather there including a 14" dump followed by another 8.5" 2 days later with a 20" depth the grade would be much higher but this is for MBY only. The 14" was still the biggest storm BTV had all season.

[WilkesboroDude]

B+ and holding without a major snowfall. 

 

Plenty of light snow and sleet events plus 1 freezing rain ice storm.

[NCSNOW]

D-. 2cnd year in a row with only 1 inch of accum and seasoonal average is almost 9. If we see a big east coast snow in the month of October again consider it the kiss of death. Probably 100% superstition, but its happened 2 years in a row.

[Teru Teru Bozu]

This winter I learned a lot about perspective. Mostly, that the perspective of the many winter-hating transplants from the North that I know, who would invariably point out that "they didn't move down here for THIS!" every time we'd have a nuisance flurry/freezing drizzle event, is extremely whack. You're in the cold-air damming capital of the Eastern Seaboard for crying out loud, not the Florida Keys. No, really. Wintry precip is something that happens down here.

 

OTOH, my own perspective of wishing for a repeat of January 2000 every winter isn't entirely healthy, either. Sigh.

 

[Bevo]

This winter I learned a lot about perspective. Mostly, that the perspective of the many winter-hating transplants from the North that I know, who would invariably point out that "they didn't move down here for THIS!" every time we'd have a nuisance flurry/freezing drizzle event, is extremely whack. You're in the cold-air damming capital of the Eastern Seaboard for crying out loud, not the Florida Keys. No, really. Wintry precip is something that happens down here.

 

OTOH, my own perspective of wishing for a repeat of January 2000 every winter isn't entirely healthy, either. Sigh.

 

Hmmmm - I get the inclination that I will enjoy your posts.  Some subtle, but apparent wit.  I look forward to your future participation.

 

As far as grading this winter, I concluded a solid B+ back on February 16th.  That meso over Greenville really did it for me.  This winter has been cold for me, but not oppressively so.  Three occasions of flakage - and way ahead in rain totals.  Wedgeland reigns supreme. 

[Teru Teru Bozu]

Hmmmm - I get the inclination that I will enjoy your posts.  Some subtle, but apparent wit.  I look forward to your future participation.

 

Thank you! I've lurked here for a while and it seems like there are a lot of interesting, knowledgeable folks around. I look forward to contributing

[Steven_1974]

I guess I can give the winter a D since I did get to see that one most of the day snow event, even though it was only maybe an inch when all was said and done.

[Brick Tamland]

D. Another below average winter. It was nice to see the snow fall that one Saturday. Large flakes, coming down hard. But it didn't stick around long because the ground was too wet and too warm beforehand. Then some more snow came through later that night, but it was all gone by the next morning.

 

Also had the minor ice event later on. Those are the only two real events all winter. Better than the F that was last winter, but still a pretty awful winter for those that actually like wintry weather around here.

[Marion_NC_WX]

I've always had the rule of thumb for my area is that winter ends around March 10th...it takes a miracle or something historic to get snow here after that point...so with that said, I will go ahead and give it a grade of C.

 

 

For the second consecutive winter we were pretty much shut out in the snowfall department. However...I thought temp wise, while not anything extremely cold, it was still up and down with several bouts of below average cold. I counted a total of 6 mornings that we got into the upper teens.

 

I think the winters of 3,4,5,6 years ago etched too much in the memory of people, its was those winters that were the abnormality. I've even read comments on this thread that we didn't have sustained (weeks) of cold. I've lived here in Western North Carolina all my life and this area is not historically known for long term below average cold weather...

 

The way the jet was oriented this winter, we got on the southern extent of the cold while those south of us was protected. The high mountains have had numerous northwest flow events. And Western North Carolina got in on 2 decent ice storms this year and one of those two came with the help of a very strong CAD.

[wncsnow]

I would give this winter a D- mainly because my area was under 4-5 Winter Storm Warnings, and only 1 really verified. There was at least 5 instances of cold rain and less than 37 degrees. There was only one instance of a very slight dusting so only a trace of snow and about 1/2 inch of sleet, also 1/4 inch of ZR

[jshetley]

Hmmmm - I get the inclination that I will enjoy your posts.  Some subtle, but apparent wit.  I look forward to your future participation.

 

As far as grading this winter, I concluded a solid B+ back on February 16th.  That meso over Greenville really did it for me.  This winter has been cold for me, but not oppressively so.  Three occasions of flakage - and way ahead in rain totals.  Wedgeland reigns supreme. 

That was a very nice little event in which I saw thundersnow for the first time and unreal snow rates. Went from nothing to everything covered in less than 10 minutes. I'll give this winter a C+.

[burrel2]

D- for my location I can’t give it an F because last winter was worse. We did actually have a few threats to follow this winter and I got to see some snow falling, but nothing other than a trace of accumulation. We also had a 1/4 inch of sleet and a trace of freezing rain earlier this winter. While much better than last year, this winter still goes down as one of the worst winters I have experienced and I’m 27 years old. My total snow/ice for the last several years: 2012/2013: trace 2011/2012: not even a flurry 2010/2011: 7.5 inches total- awesome, but still a relative minimum compared to everywhere around me. 2009/2010: 3.1 inches of powdery snow in February- basically the least in the whole state of SC, columbia got 8.5 from this storm 2008/2009: 2.75 inches from the March cut-off: again a relative minimum compared to surrounding locations 2007/2008: 2.75 inches on a front end thump that switched over to rain 2006/2007: I can’t remember this winter, I must not have gotten anything. 2005/2006: crippling ice storm 3/8 inch accrual, lost power for a week. No snow all winter 2004/2005: Mega-wedge sleet storm that ended as freezing rain. Close to 2 inches of sleet with temps in the low 20’s. no snow. 2003/2004: I got heavy dusting from the mega storm that gave charlotte over a foot and Ne Ga. 4 to 6 inches. Epic screwjob that will forever be etched into my memory. We also had a solid sleet storm that winter. We had around 3/4 inch of sleet from a storm that nobody was expecting. I believe this is the storm that Larry Cosgrove got owned by everyone on the old message boards.

[downeastnc]

B 

 

This has been a really typical winter here, not to cold, not to warm, a few winter weather events a few really good cold spells and a few warm ones. There is a reason its called the SOUTHeast and why most of us have yearly snowfall totals in the 3-7" range, and most of us do not get that much every year. It seems that folks memories are short or selective when it comes to winters. I am 40 and have lived in Greenville NC my entire life and at least half of them were worse than this one winter weather wise.  

 

I saw winter weather 4 times and it accumulated twice we had a half inch of sleet/snow changing to ZR that coated to .25" ice on everything even the grass in Jan, and the 3-4" we had back on Feb 15-16. This is actually close to average snowfall for this area, so I am good. 

 

Now we need a few mod to high risk days in April and May then its time to start watching the tropics....first named storm is probably only 3 or so months away. 

[GaWx]

Winter's not over lol. We're in the midst of the best part now. It is definitely too early to grade it. However, I can already say that this winter has been far more interesting and fun to track than the last one. Due to the much colder late Feb. to March, it is a colder winter, regardless. Also, whereas last winter had zero wintry threats at KATL other than that two day period with snow flurries and the one cold snap in early Feb., this one has had a good number of wintry precip. threats since late Jan. Hardly a week at a time has gone over the last 6 without a threat of something wintry. So, it really is like night and day regardless of how it ends up and regardless that KATL is so far at the same total for snow as all of last winter (T). Also, thanks to Tony's molestorm, I saw my first snow AND graupel in three years! As a great bonus, I experienced the heaviest graupel of my life and one of the best walks in my entire life! I never knew that walking in the graupel could be such a blast.

Edit: I already kind of suspected that the MJO pretty much means squat as regards winter storm chances in the SE. However, my latest research confirmed that. Also, the Goofy cold bias has been very alive and well this winter lol. Finally, I learned (actually also kind of knew) that the naming of winter storms with silly names is silly.

 

 Sure enough, I experienced the most interesting event of the winter last night in Dunwoody, an awesome 15-20 minute snow squall

[isohume]

F+

I've learned you don't have to be accountable for anything you say or any accusations you make.

[Poimen]

I actually squeaked out 4" of snow up here between two events, with a couple flizzards mixed in. The February event in which it snowed all day I ended up with 2," most of which came in about a 45 minute period late that night with the final band. That 45 minute period was probably the heaviest snow I've ever seen. Altogether I give the season a C because I recognize my local area did better than most immediately surrounding me.

[SnowNiner]

I'd give it a C- for CLT (I've changed the grade up now since I'm not so bitter).  We had a slizzle event in January and I saw the best Thundersnow storm I've ever seen in February.  It only lasted 30 minutes or so but we got 3 inches out of it.  Pretty impressive.  If it weren't for the thundersnow storm it'd be an F+. 

 

I learned that we don't want to see energy coming out of the northern stream because it's just too hard to get the ridge/trough axis right in the exact place it needs to be to produce a storm in the SE.  We want to see storms coming from the southern jet coming on shore from around southern California and going to our south over the gulf.  Thus, hope for a nice Nino next year. 

[Stovepipe]

Not a bad winter at all here in Knoxville all things considered.

 

One 2.5 inch snow

One 1 inch snow

Three dustings (with moderate snow falling)

One ice storm (that shut down the University of Tennessee)

 

I also got to experience 4 to 5 inches during a Sandy Blizzard chase (up I-81 in VA) as well as some seriously epic cold and wind (along with snow) up at Snowshoe.

 

So I give this winter a solid B.  This grade takes into account the reduced snow regime we've been in for the past 15 years though.  Knoxville's average annual snowfall is 12 inches but that is based on the old days when snow was much more common.  Getting more than 3 inches in my backyard is like pulling teeth now.  Even during 2009/2010/2011 I never saw more than 4 inches and most events were 2-3. 

 

Hoping for that elusive weak Nino next season.

[Teru Teru Bozu]

I learned that we don't want to see energy coming out of the northern stream because it's just too hard to get the ridge/trough axis right in the exact place it needs to be to produce a storm in the SE.  We want to see storms coming from the southern jet coming on shore from around southern California and going to our south over the gulf.  Thus, hope for a nice Nino next year. 

 

Ya, definitely. Miller A's all the way.

[rosie]

B-, best part the last 3 weeks. Having severe weather followed by snow was awesome!

[CAD_Wedge_NC]

B-, best part the last 3 weeks. Having severe weather followed by snow was awesome!

 

I give it a B-. Only because I got to experience thundersnow twice in the same winter. Would liked to have seen an arctic outbreak like the GFS had on one of its runs back in Jan. And let's not forget about the 18 inches of snow on that one Euro run.....but overall, it could have been worse. At least it was better than last winter.