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Chicago's Epic Snow Drought


Hoosier

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22 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

I have no words for Chicago's snow drought. I didn't think such a thing was possible. And they had two 6+ snows BEFORE Dec 12. Are they trying to be Denver? I'll have to dive into to stats but I can't imagine detroit has ever seen anything like it, especially with the Lakes. Theres no question this was a front loaded winter so far, but even DTW, at similar latitude, has seen 14" of their 30.7" fall after Dec 17. 

Since you brought up the two 6+ inch storms... that is another thing that is so odd about this whole thing.  In the handful of meteorological winters that had streaks over 60 days without a 1" snowfall, only one of them also had a 6" storm or greater sometime in DJF... 1955-56, which went 61 days without a 1" snow (Dec 2-Jan 31) and then had an 8.3" storm on Feb 11.     

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8 hours ago, michsnowfreak said:

I have no words for Chicago's snow drought. I didn't think such a thing was possible. And they had two 6+ snows BEFORE Dec 12. Are they trying to be Denver? I'll have to dive into to stats but I can't imagine detroit has ever seen anything like it, especially with the Lakes. Theres no question this was a front loaded winter so far, but even DTW, at similar latitude, has seen 14" of their 30.7" fall after Dec 17. 

Yep.  Unfortunately, the big lesson this year is that, if you're not downwind of the Great Lakes, it takes a lot of things to come together to produce snowfall.  You'd like to think that it would snow every so often simply because the calendar says it's Winter...but it just doesn't work that way. :(  

 

To look at it in a more positive way...this season has made me appreciate snow when it does occur.

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1 hour ago, beavis1729 said:

Yep.  Unfortunately, the big lesson this year is that, if you're not downwind of the Great Lakes, it takes a lot of things to come together to produce snowfall.  You'd like to think that it would snow every so often simply because the calendar says it's Winter...but it just doesn't work that way. :(  

 

To look at it in a more positive way...this season has made me appreciate snow when it does occur.

Hoping you get some snow beavis!

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On 2/13/2017 at 0:29 AM, michsnowfreak said:

I have no words for Chicago's snow drought. I didn't think such a thing was possible. And they had two 6+ snows BEFORE Dec 12. Are they trying to be Denver? I'll have to dive into to stats but I can't imagine detroit has ever seen anything like it, especially with the Lakes. Theres no question this was a front loaded winter so far, but even DTW, at similar latitude, has seen 14" of their 30.7" fall after Dec 17. 

I imagine DTW (and other Michigan sites) would be in a similar boat as Chicago if not for Lake Michigan.

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2 hours ago, Powerball said:

I imagine DTW (and other Michigan sites) would be in a similar boat as Chicago if not for Lake Michigan.

DTW has certainly benefited from some wicked Lake squalls in early & late Jan as well as early Feb, definitely made the most of a very boring time. However, I disagree about being in the same boat. DTW got 3.0" from a front thump on Jan 10th and 4.5" from a clipper on Jan 30/31. That right there is 7.5" of pure synoptic snow.


Detroit is nowhere near a snow drought, but at 30.8" on the season, DTW is now just 1.3" above normal to date and will certainly fall below normal this week. With the jury still out on March, above normal season snow still definitely possible. What an unfulfilling above normal snow season if that happens haha.

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For Detroit, the lowest snow from Dec 17 - Feb 16 is:

2.2" - 1890-91 (season total 27.0")

3.1" - 1918-19 (season total 15.2")

3.4" - 1881-82 (season total 13.2")

3.7" - 1982-83 (season total 20.0")

 

Longest DJF period without a 1" snowfall at Detroit

Dec 6, 1890 to Feb 19, 1891 - 76 days

Dec 4, 1918 to Feb 16, 1919 - 75 days

 

 

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25 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

For Detroit, the lowest snow from Dec 17 - Feb 16 is:

2.2" - 1890-91 (season total 27.0")

3.1" - 1918-19 (season total 15.2")

3.4" - 1881-82 (season total 13.2")

3.7" - 1982-83 (season total 20.0")

 

Longest DJF period without a 1" snowfall at Detroit

Dec 6, 1890 to Feb 19, 1891 - 76 days

Dec 4, 1918 to Feb 16, 1919 - 75 days

 

 

Wow, wouldn't have guessed that Detroit had 2 streaks over 70 days (or maybe more... what's 3rd place?)

The highest that the Chicago streak can get to is 73, if it runs through the 28th.  

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20 hours ago, Hoosier said:

Wow, wouldn't have guessed that Detroit had 2 streaks over 70 days (or maybe more... what's 3rd place?)

The highest that the Chicago streak can get to is 73, if it runs through the 28th.  

While I dont have the exact 3rd place (too much digging), its definitely under 70 days for DJF.

 

The lowest amount of winter seasons with 1" snowfall days:

1936-37 & 1965-66 only had two days with over 1"+ of snowfall! This is followed by 3 days in 1952-53 & 4 days in 1918-19.

 

 

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2 hours ago, IllinoisWedges said:

06z GFS run wants to make our streak a thing of the past. Ahhh. 

First "threat" may be with the weekend system.  The track doesn't look favorable at this point so it would be a question of just how far north it goes and the amount of wraparound snow.  

After that, with the pattern turning colder and appearing to be fairly active... well, let's just say it's going to take some wiggling to keep this thing going.  

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14 hours ago, Hoosier said:

First "threat" may be with the weekend system.  The track doesn't look favorable at this point so it would be a question of just how far north it goes and the amount of wraparound snow.  

After that, with the pattern turning colder and appearing to be fairly active... well, let's just say it's going to take some wiggling to keep this thing going.  

May not have to worry about it if that SE ridge keeps trending stronger. Not even Bo is safe on that last Euro run. Sheesh.

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20 hours ago, Hoosier said:

First "threat" may be with the weekend system.  The track doesn't look favorable at this point so it would be a question of just how far north it goes and the amount of wraparound snow.  

After that, with the pattern turning colder and appearing to be fairly active... well, let's just say it's going to take some wiggling to keep this thing going.  

The gfs always rushes everything. But I'm really intrigued by what March may bring. It doesn't look like a particularly cold month but it certainly doesn't look warm either. Certainly much colder weather is on tap than this week. And if the active long range is any indication...some people will no doubt get slammed in March. Im sure some will be screwed too. So buckle up! I always want my own backyard, but this chicago drought is eye popping. I am genuinely intrigued. Snow wise this winter will end up run of the mill from a total snow perspective here regardless of what March brings. Meaning we are already far away from snow futility even if not another flake falls, but also it would take over 2 feet to get us into top 20 snowiest list.

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14 minutes ago, Chicago Storm said:


Easily broken.

Not surprisingly, record least snowy February is in play too. Only a T of snow on the month so far.

There's a possibility that the storm system being progged around the 27th-28th time frame could put that potential at risk.

IT has a somewhat better chance of being a formidable snow event for a larger share of the subforum.

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6 minutes ago, Powerball said:

There's a possibility that the storm system being progged around the 27th-28th time frame could put that potential at risk.

IT has a somewhat better chance of being a formidable snow event for a larger share of the subforum.

extremely unlikely at this point. Should be a rainer for the vast majority of the subforum with the teleconnections in place and lack of blocking to the north. Would be absolutely shocked to see it track that far SE.

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Alright, some more stats.

With 0.6" of snow in January and nothing measurable so far this month, there is still a shot to finish with less than 1" for February. Chicago has never recorded back to back months with less than 1" during meteorological winter.  2 out of 3 meteorological winter months with under 1" has happened one time...in 1986-87 (0.4" in Dec 1986, T in Feb 1987).

 

 

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1 minute ago, Maxim said:

extremely unlikely at this point. Should be a rainer for the vast majority of the subforum with the teleconnections in place and lack of blocking to the north. Would be absolutely shocked to see it track that far SE.

It's far from a ringing endorsement with the persistent -PNA, but with a relatively greater amount of cold air to work with and the wave digging as far south as progged, it's the best shot we've had in at least a month. 

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