Post your Winter 2016-17 grade

[buckeye]

My snowblower is sitting in the back corner of the garage....still covered in dust and boxes.

Not a single trackable threat.... not one.  (this is probably the most amazing fail stat).   Even during last year's fail, we at least had a couple storms to track.

(1) weak alberta clipper in December that snuck up on us and wasn't really 'seen' until about 36 hours out.   It did surprise on the high side with 3-6" in Central OH.

Sorry, but severe thunderstorm do not boost my winter grade.   That's like stealing an A paper in English to pad your Math grade.  Winter is a miserable time of year, the only thing that makes it less than miserable is tracking snow storms and snow on the ground.

Throw all that in a blender and I'll give it a D-, and I'm being kind.    The weak clipper in December rescued the F.

 

 

[cyclone77]

I'm actually gonna bump up the grade I gave it earlier, F+ to a D+.  Incredible stretch of record breaking warmth with a legit severe event in the area the last 12 days of Feb made an otherwise benign winter pretty exciting for awhile.  That's all I ask for in the weather dept.  Just give me something interesting to track/follow in any season.  

[IllinoisWedges]

Stopping by to upgrade my A- to an A+. Got my first 3 tornadoes on the 28th. Amazing winter. 

[slow poke]

I can definitely see you guys that like severe weather loving this winter so far. Been pretty active warmth and severe weather wise. I like a good T storm as much as most people but would have rather have seen some T snow. 

[michsnowfreak]

Too soon to grade til I see what March does or doesn't do. Early thinking would be in the C- range.

[Geoboy645]

So far I rate this winter a C-. November sucked mostly with boring weather till the week before Thanksgiving. December was awesome though with 2 10'' storms in a row. Albeit it could have been maybe not as cold in the middle of the month.The melt also did start at a pretty bad time with the rain starting on Christmas. January was absolutely horrible with a 2 week period of fog, mid-30's and ice. Also there was like 15 days in a row where there was no sun! IT felt like Seattle after a while.It was the first month where I've got school closings for ice, it wasn't just once,but three times.  February was ok from a winter perspective with some snow and cold. From a spring perspective,It was awesome with that stretch of 60's and 70's in the middle. We did also get our first couple of t-storms at the end of the month. Overall not bad thanks to December,but could've been much better.

 

November D+

December B+

January D-

Feburary C for Winter, B for Spring

March so far C- for Winter, D for Spring

[snowstormcanuck]

D. Final grade.

[IWXwx]

21 minutes ago, snowstormcanuck said:

D. Final grade.

We finally had a winter where we sucked worse than Toronto/Etobicoke. Normal snowfall ~34", final total 14 1/2".

D-

[stormtrackertf]

D. All in all, it was fairly average as we didn't even have severely below average numbers for snowfall or anything. The constant freeze-thaw stuff was awful and then getting that February warm up that woke up some of the garden just to kill it all off a week later... not a fun winter at all.

We had one good snowstorm in December and that was it, then there was that decent event earlier this month. Nickle and dime city outside of those.
But I always like to keep in mind that our biggest snowstorm ever happened on April 6th. While I definitely don't foresee anymore major snowstorms the rest of the spring, you never know.

[ConfusedKitten]

I'll up my overall grade to a C-, 65 degrees, multiple thunderstorm days, and a windstorm (or was that March?) in February was a nice break from the monotony. March has been a total snoozefest, but that's pretty normal here.

November: C

December: B+

January: F(ricking depressing)

February: B-

March: C

[michsnowfreak]

On 2/17/2017 at 6:06 PM, michsnowfreak said:

Been a while since I did a writeup lol. As of right now, grade is a C. Depending what happens (or doesnt happen) the rest of the way, plenty of room for that grade to go up or down. However, regardless of what happens the rest of the way, there is no way this winter gets an F or an A.

 

Ive learned over the years, that despite the general public love affair with a White Christmas and a disdain for winter after Dec 25, by many in the weather weenie community, what happens in December is ALWAYS forgotten when grading the winter. In good winters with bad Decembers, most let December slide as a late start. In bad winters with good Decembers, most are more brutal and its as though no matter how much snow fell in December it didnt happen lol.

 

Not a fan of monthly breakdowns (because things dont follow a calendar month), but everyone does em so...

NOV - D. Some cool squalls on the 19th, but it was the only winter to speak of that month.

DEC - A. A fantastic month. The storm on the 11th overperformed expectations and qpf, and overperformed DTX forecast by 3-5". I ended up with 10.9", then a few days later an arctic front that was supposed to dust us with squalls instead was a whiteout with 2.5" of unexpected snow (bonus points that this happened as I was decorating the tree). Another 2 days later, a 3.7" snow hit. Arctic cold and deep snow the week before Christmas, and even though the thaw commenced at the worst time, it was still a solid White Christmas. It may not have been a courier & ives postcard, but Christmas dinner at my aunts house featured a look at her white backyard, not the black piles that lined the roads lol. The last week of the month thaw is why it gets an A not A+. 18.5" imby for the month, and DTW had 16.8", good for 13th snowiest Dec.

 

JAN - C. This was a tough one and Im sure im one of the highest grades here for Jan. The 16-day snowless stretch during the core of the month was absolutely brutal, and a nightmare to snowcover lovers. The month however started with a few whiteouts and a 3.3" thump snow, and the last week of the month featured two more whiteouts and a 4.7" clipper jackpot on the last day of the month, bringing my monthly snow to 13.3". Each of the 4 whiteouts had visib drop to 0.1 mile or less briefly, and my area jackpotted from the clipper.

 

FEB - C- SO FAR. Another whiteout on the 1st, my 6th lake whiteout of the winter (1 in Dec, 4 in Jan, 1 in Feb). The first week of the month had solid snowpack, but a few dustings and traces is all she wrote for additional snow and will be until perhaps the last few days of the month. Based on the forecast, the grade will likely drop, but too much unknown yet as there are 11 days remaining (will the month end with a storm?).

 

SURPRISING STATS: DTW had 14 days with 6"+ of snowdepth this winter, 12 of which came in December. Normal for an entire winter is 10. So yes, despite so many saying its a "non-winter" (again this goes back to my Dec theory), we had more "deep snow" days than normal this winter.

 

Also, Heavy snow (0.25 mile visib or less) has fallen imby on 10 days this winter: Nov 19, Dec 11, Dec 14, Dec 16, Jan 5, Jan 7, Jan 29, Jan 30, Jan 31, Feb 1.

 

I can break winter down my own way, it would be:

Nov 15-Dec 7: D

Dec 8-25: A+

Dec 26-Jan 3: D-

Jan 4-10: A

Jan 11-26: F

Jan 27-Feb 1: A+

Feb 2-6: A

Feb 7-17: D-

Feb 18-Apr 15: TBD

 

 

If I used the grading scale that was so popular on weather boards during the boards' heyday, Id probably give this winter a B. (I remember people giving winter a C or even D with their 200% of normal snow because it wasnt as much as Madison, WI lol). SE MI did better than most of the non-snowbelt midwest and mby did better than most of SE MI. But. I grade overall.

 

Final grade: C. I was tempted to go C-, but winters last storm once again jackpotted my area, do I decided to go for a C. Finishing with 41.5" total snowfall is not bad, but the constant roller coaster and the maddening periods of nothing and bare ground are just not acceptable to a winter lover.

 

Heavy snow (0.25 mile visib or less) fell imby on 11 days this winter: Nov 19, Dec 11, Dec 14, Dec 16, Jan 5, Jan 7, Jan 29, Jan 30, Jan 31, Feb 1, Mar 13.

 

Nov: D...Dec: A...Jan: C...Feb: D...Mar: B