Winter Climo Question

[CTWeatherFan]

Hey all. This fall I will be attending the University of Michigan. Since I'm not originally from the area, I was wondering what I should expect there in a typical winter (snowfall, temps, etc..).

 

Thanks in advance.

[RobertSul]

Hey, fellow New Englander here (from Southborough, Ma) who moved to Ann Arbor 8 years ago.

Don't expect huge snowstorms (foot at the most), but expect a lot of snow falling over the course of the winter (there've been 96+ hour stretches when light snow has consistently fallen). Snow squalls are definitely more common, since some of the lake effect squalls reach this far. This past winter I've seen three separate white-out conditions. Also, I've seen a couple tornado watches during the winter (definitely never happened in Mass!) but evenso, temperatures remain more consistently below freezing, so snow does seem to stick around longer even though it never gets too deep (rarely more than 15").

Ann Arbor is a BEAUTIFUL, fun city. You'll have a great time out here!

[hm8]

Ayyy-yo! .Another UofM student here (Junior next year).

 

Like a lot of the midwest, it can be winter pretty variable...both inter- and intra-season. It gets cold (I'd say most seasons see at least one sub-zero day), but that shouldn't be a huge deal for you, at least compared to the poor souls that come here from Cali. The real thing that surpirsed me was how windy it can get here...there's a ton of wbuilding-induced wind tunnels that can make a walk to class on a cold day pretty brutal.

 

This year was pretty unique with the amount of LE that reached all the way over here with the intensity that it did, but its pretty common to get at least some light LE showers. AA also seems to be the capital of nickel and dime snowfalls as of late - expect a bunch of 1-2 inchers.  

 

What are you planning on majoring in?

[hm8]

Also, there's been a coop observation station here for ages....,records back to 1880.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USC00200230/detail

[CTWeatherFan]

Thanks everyone!

I plan on majoring in meteorology.

[michsnowfreak]

I think the others have summed it up nicely. Compared to CT, you will see a lot more snow falling, longer lasting snowcover, more cloudy skies, noticeably colder temps....but this isn't noreaster country lol, so forget about a massive storm. Count on 1 or 2 snowstorms of 6-12" in a typical winter, a lot of 1-4" type of snows, and a ton of dusting to 1" snows (make sure you invest in a good scraper if you have a car out here, you will use it a lot )

 

Ann Arbor, just 1 county due west of DTW, averages over a foot more snow than DTW, due in large part to lake effect.

 

Per NOWData, the 1981-2010 normal at U of M Ann Arbor:

 

Snowfall: 58.4" (by comparison DTW is 43.8")

Oct- 0.2"

Nov- 3.1"

Dec- 13.5"

Jan- 16.8"

Feb- 13.4"

Mar- 8.6"

Apr- 2.8"

 

Days with 1"+ snowcover: 61

Days with 3"+ snowcover: 40

Days with 5"+ snowcover: 25

Days with 10"+ snowcover: 6

 

Days with 0.1"+ snowfall: 53

Days with 1.0"+ snowfall: 18

Days with 3.0"+ snowfall: 5

Days with 5.0"+ snowfall: 2

*Note...you can probably tack on at least another 20 or more days with a trace of snowfall. the flakes-in-the-air frequency is high here.
 

Days with a high temp at or below 32F: 47

Days with a low temp at or below 32F: 132

Days with a low temp at or below 0F: 5

Weather aside, Ann Arbor is an awesome city and U of M is a great school. You will enjoy! Fall in Ann Arbor is awesome too. Expect peak color in mid to late October.

[hm8]

Thanks everyone!

I plan on majoring in meteorology.

 

Sweet...see ya in the SRB some day then

[Chinook]

 

Per NOWData, the 1981-2010 normal at U of M Ann Arbor:

 

Snowfall: 58.4" (by comparison DTW is 43.8")

I believe that Ann Arbor's annual snowfall is close to that of Jackson, maybe 46". The U of M climatology seems high. A long time ago, Michsnowfreak told me that AA (U of M) got 40" in December 2000. I was there and really that's too high. It was lower than 40" by a lot.

[mjwise]

Hey all. This fall I will be attending the University of Michigan. Since I'm not originally from the area, I was wondering what I should expect there in a typical winter (snowfall, temps, etc..).

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I hope you like gray skies, because we have them a lot in the winter. SE Michigan also seems prone to fog and mist (and therefore, lots of windshield scraping). I've heard it compared to Seattle, but with 4 seasons instead of 2.

 

It actually doesn't get as cold as some people like to joke about Michigan getting because of proximity to the lakes. The cold spot is in the higher terrain several hours north up around Grayling. We generally don't get more than snow showers from lake effect action - this year was an exception to that though. You will get sick of the slick dustings we get a lot though. Epic nor'easter type snowstorms don't happen - even in some of the legendary midwestern blizzards over the years, we actually didn't get a ton of snow (e.g., (Midwestern) Blizzard of 1978: 8" or so).

 

The co-op weather station on campus is the best source for weather records. The Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti (Willow Run) airports both reside in microclimates that don't really reflect the surrounding area terribly well. ARB is situated in a very shallow, small bowl of land that radiates very efficiently so you see a lot of misleadingly low lows, and YIP gets downsloping winds so generally posts the highest high temps in the state on a day to day basis.

 

Enjoy it!

[mjwise]

I believe that Ann Arbor's annual snowfall is close to that of Jackson, maybe 46". The U of M climatology seems high. A long time ago, Michsnowfreak told me that AA (U of M) got 40" in December 2000. I was there and really that's too high. It was lower than 40" by a lot.

 

Nickels and dimes, nickels and dimes. Measurable snow on 19 of 31 days that month.

[michsnowfreak]

I believe that Ann Arbor's annual snowfall is close to that of Jackson, maybe 46". The U of M climatology seems high. A long time ago, Michsnowfreak told me that AA (U of M) got 40" in December 2000. I was there and really that's too high. It was lower than 40" by a lot.

U of M has an awesome dedicated weather obs staff who measure the right way (every 6 hours) whereas Jackson is just a coop and often coops don't measure every 6 hours. I don't see how jackson would average almost the same as Detroit being halfway closer to lake Michigan.

Also December 2000 with 40" is 100% believable. Ann arbor got buried with the dec 11/12 storm and it was a month full of nickel and dime snows from start to finish. I had 29.9" in December 2000 and only got 6.4" from the blizzard, less than half what ann arbor got. Its silly to just go by memory and say it was lower and by a lot when that month was well documented to have dropped 25-45" of snow in southeast Michigan.

[SpartyOn]

Hey all. This fall I will be attending the University of Michigan. Since I'm not originally from the area, I was wondering what I should expect there in a typical winter (snowfall, temps, etc..).

Thanks in advance.

Sorry to hear that. ;-)

[Chargers09]

Sorry to hear that. ;-)

Cow college. Moooooooo. 

[Trent]

I believe that Ann Arbor's annual snowfall is close to that of Jackson, maybe 46". The U of M climatology seems high. 

 

Yeah. For the 4 years I was there, I always measured less than what was reported. I could never figure out these highball reports. Then again if it's just fluff and you've got dozens of days each winter with snowfall, an extra 0.5" of unnoticeable fluff or inflation with every storm can result in adding well over a foot of snow at the end of the season.

 

I think the one winter I was there they officially had over 80" and it was the record snowiest, yet I could barely notice it being that much different than other winters. 

[michsnowfreak]

Yeah. For the 4 years I was there, I always measured less than what was reported. I could never figure out these highball reports. Then again if it's just fluff and you've got dozens of days each winter with snowfall, an extra 0.5" of unnoticeable fluff or inflation with every storm can result in adding well over a foot of snow at the end of the season.

I think the one winter I was there they officially had over 80" and it was the record snowiest, yet I could barely notice it being that much different than other winters.

I think they measure every 6 hours like they are supposed to. This winter ann arbor was a lake MAGNET and combined with an observer who doesnt miss a beat they had like 65" on the season vs 47.7" at DTW. Some of the coop numbers from other areas (dearborn, grosse pt) are inexcusably low. I notice most coops anywhere tend to run low. Its funny even in this day and age snowfall is a science subject to SO much human error.

[hm8]

I agree cleaning and measuring every 6 hours is probably the reason for AAs seemingly high totals. Also there's a crapload of days with like 0.1-0.9" recorded, which adds up but might just be recorded as a T elsewhere

[michsnowfreak]

I agree cleaning and measuring every 6 hours is probably the reason for AAs seemingly high totals. Also there's a crapload of days with like 0.1-0.9" recorded, which adds up but might just be recorded as a T elsewhere

Bingo. To be honest, all your first order stations (DTW, FNT, MBS, DTX) measure every 6 hours (6z, 12z, 18z, 00z) and at each of those hours the total is submitted to ncdc, but as to what any of the coops do its anyones guess. I know U of M and myself are avid observers who excercise the rule, but many of the other coops are not. As you said, many of the 0.9" and less snows will get reported as a T, but Ive seen even worse from some stations. I remember during one of our fluffy snowfalls (like 30-1 ratio) the Grosse Pte spotter said 0.05" liquid and T snow, even though the snow depth was higher than their report the day prior LOL. Also sometimes the timing of the snowfall is everything. If its a snowfall that ends right at obs time the measurment is fine, but if it ended at like 3pm the previous day and rain, melting, settling, etc has been a factor, I swear they just do whats on the board at 7am. You can get away with it in a different climate where it doesnt snow so often, but in a region like us where we get  involved in most synoptic storms that cross the country, and not to mention proximity to Lake MI, your talking some 40-50 days per season of measurable snowfall, so measuring sloppily or when you feel like it, or getting burned out from measuring small snowfalls every day and using the cop out T is NOT gonna cut it for an accurate season total. They send several reminder newsletters with snow measuring tips throughout the course of the winter to us coops, and I cant help but think its because of some of the sloppy observations. I can pretty much tell you which coops are good and which are not (for snow) from Wayne, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, Macomb counties.