6 inch Snowstorms - How Frequent are they??

[ChescoWx]

With not much going on winter weather wise I went back to attempt to quantify how unusually snowy against climo we are in this area and how spoiled the younger generation is regarding snow. What I will share below is for Chester County PA which does a little better regarding snowstorms than my hometown where I grew up Philadelphia PA. While I don't have the exact stats for PHL at my fingertips (someone here will come up with it) - I grew up in Philly during the 1970's and I believe there was not a snowstorm over 6" from 1967 until January 1978 - so from the time I was 3 yrs old till I was 14 there was not one storm over 6". On top of that imagine the horror of not any snow at all in a winter season - well that occurred both in philly and Chester County during the winter of 1972/73.  Now if that happened today in the age of global warming/climate change which now allows us to expect at least a couple significant (>6") snows every year - weenies everywhere would be complaining a blue streak. Just a warning those years are coming again as I am a big believer in all of this being cyclical - so brace yourselves!

Anyway here in Chester County we average a 6" snowstorm about 1.5 times each winter season. However, just like in philly the 1970's were not kind. In fact we had 5 winter seasons without a 6" snow event in Chester County those being 1970/71 - 1972/73 (no snow at all!!) - 1974/75 - 1976/77 and 1979/80. The 1940's and 1950's were also not snowy (despite what my Dad likes to tell me) - the 1940's experienced 4 winters without a 6" snow while the 1950's had 3 seasons without a significant snowstorm.

Of course this decade we are on pace for our snowiest decade on record...plus we have only had 1 season (2012/13) without a 6" snowstorm. If we keep that streak going we would match the 1901-1910's and 1960's with only 1 season without a significant snow. 

 

[KamuSnow]

3 hours ago, ChescoPaWxman said:

With not much going on winter weather wise I went back to attempt to quantify how unusually snowy against climo we are in this area and how spoiled the younger generation is regarding snow. What I will share below is for Chester County PA which does a little better regarding snowstorms than my hometown where I grew up Philadelphia PA. While I don't have the exact stats for PHL at my fingertips (someone here will come up with it) - I grew up in Philly during the 1970's and I believe there was not a snowstorm over 6" from 1967 until January 1978 - so from the time I was 3 yrs old till I was 14 there was not one storm over 6". On top of that imagine the horror of not any snow at all in a winter season - well that occurred both in philly and Chester County during the winter of 1972/73.  Now if that happened today in the age of global warming/climate change which now allows us to expect at least a couple significant (>6") snows every year - weenies everywhere would be complaining a blue streak. Just a warning those years are coming again as I am a big believer in all of this being cyclical - so brace yourselves!

Anyway here in Chester County we average a 6" snowstorm about 1.5 times each winter season. However, just like in philly the 1970's were not kind. In fact we had 5 winter seasons without a 6" snow event in Chester County those being 1970/71 - 1972/73 (no snow at all!!) - 1974/75 - 1976/77 and 1979/80. The 1940's and 1950's were also not snowy (despite what my Dad likes to tell me) - the 1940's experienced 4 winters without a 6" snow while the 1950's had 3 seasons without a significant snowstorm.

Of course this decade we are on pace for our snowiest decade on record...plus we have only had 1 season (2012/13) without a 6" snowstorm. If we keep that streak going we would match the 1901-1910's and 1960's with only 1 season without a significant snow. 

 

I've been wanting to update my decadal snow chart for PHL, so I can dig that out. Actually I think Ray made a thread regarding that a few years back. Not sure about Chester County but in NW Delco where I grew up it was a tapering off from '68 to '70.

11/30/67, 6"; then around mid-Feb '69, one 10" and one 8"; and Dec. 25 - 26 '69, 11" before it changed to frz. rain. Also had 7" one year in April around opening day for the Phillies ('71?), and it was 70F the next day, lol.

[LehighValleyBlizzard]

On 12/27/2018 at 1:52 PM, ChescoPaWxman said:

With not much going on winter weather wise I went back to attempt to quantify how unusually snowy against climo we are in this area and how spoiled the younger generation is regarding snow. What I will share below is for Chester County PA which does a little better regarding snowstorms than my hometown where I grew up Philadelphia PA. While I don't have the exact stats for PHL at my fingertips (someone here will come up with it) - I grew up in Philly during the 1970's and I believe there was not a snowstorm over 6" from 1967 until January 1978 - so from the time I was 3 yrs old till I was 14 there was not one storm over 6". On top of that imagine the horror of not any snow at all in a winter season - well that occurred both in philly and Chester County during the winter of 1972/73.  Now if that happened today in the age of global warming/climate change which now allows us to expect at least a couple significant (>6") snows every year - weenies everywhere would be complaining a blue streak. Just a warning those years are coming again as I am a big believer in all of this being cyclical - so brace yourselves!

Anyway here in Chester County we average a 6" snowstorm about 1.5 times each winter season. However, just like in philly the 1970's were not kind. In fact we had 5 winter seasons without a 6" snow event in Chester County those being 1970/71 - 1972/73 (no snow at all!!) - 1974/75 - 1976/77 and 1979/80. The 1940's and 1950's were also not snowy (despite what my Dad likes to tell me) - the 1940's experienced 4 winters without a 6" snow while the 1950's had 3 seasons without a significant snowstorm.

Of course this decade we are on pace for our snowiest decade on record...plus we have only had 1 season (2012/13) without a 6" snowstorm. If we keep that streak going we would match the 1901-1910's and 1960's with only 1 season without a significant snow. 

 

I did the calculation for Allentown one time and got 1.6 per winter, In line with Stanley Chagnons data.  1993-94 was the most in Atown with 6 such storms

[Hurricane Agnes]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:42 PM, KamuSnow said:

I've been wanting to update my decadal snow chart for PHL, so I can dig that out. Actually I think Ray made a thread regarding that a few years back.

I think I found that thread here -

Growing up, my dad liked to use slide film to take pics so I have a box of slides somewhere (a few that we had converted to print) that are in color with me and one of my sisters (the youngest wasn't born yet) after the 1966 12" storm here in Philly, complete with shovels, snowsuits and Yogi Bear boots standing in front of our garage door (I was 4).    Other than that, the snow was really stingy although I recall maybe one or two times where there was enough in the backyard to attempt to make a snow fort - and it may have been during the February 1973 time period.   Of course the 1978 storm was epic in terms of ending the snow drought, with snow the consistency of which was perfect to make a good-sized snowman on our front lawn, but by then I was in high school.