Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Given I've enjoyed having the -20C day thread and seeing Don's and other's comments I thought I'd start a new thread for my city. Ottawa is in the midst of a snow drought. We average around 235cm (90") of snow per year but have barely seen 70cm thus far. Montreal had a snowfall warning in December thanks to the surprise retrograding storm, but Ottawa has yet to see a snowfall warning, or a winter storm warning. For a snowfall warning to be issued, 6" or more snow must be forecast to fall in a 2 hour period. If Ottawa (known as the snowiest national capital in the world) gets through an entire winter without a single such warning, it would be incredible. Granted, February and March are normally much snowier than January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowstormcanuck Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Given I've enjoyed having the -20C day thread and seeing Don's and other's comments I thought I'd start a new thread for my city. Ottawa is in the midst of a snow drought. We average around 235cm (90") of snow per year but have barely seen 70cm thus far. Montreal had a snowfall warning in December thanks to the surprise retrograding storm, but Ottawa has yet to see a snowfall warning, or a winter storm warning. For a snowfall warning to be issued, 6" or more snow must be forecast to fall in a 2 hour period. If Ottawa (known as the snowiest national capital in the world) gets through an entire winter without a single such warning, it would be incredible. Granted, February and March are normally much snowier than January. That's 12 hours or less OB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 That's 12 hours or less OB. whoops. A typo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 haha OB i see what you are trying to do here..... Don S makes a post about -20C days, and Ottawa records not only a nighttime and goes into the freezer, but could very well record a daytime sub -20C reading.... and now you make this thread.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 In answer to Organizing Low's question about snow futility, here is 1952-53 at Ottawa: November 1952: 2.8cm December 1952: 33.5cm January 1953: 35.6 cm February 1953: 18.3cm March 1953: 8.1cm April 1953: 1.0cm Total: 99.3cm Now that's a bust! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 In answer to Organizing Low's question about snow futility, here is 1952-53 at Ottawa: November 1952: 2.8cm December 1952: 33.5cm January 1953: 35.6 cm February 1953: 18.3cm March 1953: 8.1cm April 1953: 1.0cm Total: 99.3cm Now that's a bust! :o i didnt even think that was possible!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 :o i didnt even think that was possible!!! no kidding! An imagine how it must have felt in November 1950 when Toronto got a foot of snow and Ottawa got...9 mm of rain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michsnowfreak Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 In answer to Organizing Low's question about snow futility, here is 1952-53 at Ottawa: November 1952: 2.8cm December 1952: 33.5cm January 1953: 35.6 cm February 1953: 18.3cm March 1953: 8.1cm April 1953: 1.0cm Total: 99.3cm Now that's a bust! Ottawa, in inches: November 1952: 1.1" December 1952: 13.2" January 1953: 14.0" February 1953: 7.2" March 1953: 3.2" April 1953: 0.4" Total: 39.1" 1952-53 was notoriously snowless across the entire midwest/Lakes region. at Detroit: November 1952: T December 1952: 4.3" January 1953: 9.4" February 1953: 0.7" March 1953: 1.0" April 1953: 1.2" Total: 16.6" Detroits biggest storm was only 3.2" (Jan 11th). Worse yet, the peak obs time snow depth the entire winter was only 2" (on several occasions), a futility record that luckily stands alone in DTW's climate books. What a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE winter that must have been for all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Ottawa, in inches: November 1952: 1.1" December 1952: 13.2" January 1953: 14.0" February 1953: 7.2" March 1953: 3.2" April 1953: 0.4" Total: 39.1" 1952-53 was notoriously snowless across the entire midwest/Lakes region. at Detroit: November 1952: T December 1952: 4.3" January 1953: 9.4" February 1953: 0.7" March 1953: 1.0" April 1953: 1.2" Total: 16.6" Detroits biggest storm was only 3.2" (Jan 11th). Worse yet, the peak obs time snow depth the entire winter was only 2" (on several occasions), a futility record that luckily stands alone in DTW's climate books. What a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE winter that must have been for all. awful good thing there were no weather boards i wonder what type of winter it was on the east coast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 There must have been some high latitude blocking, or a lot of melting ice at the North Pole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donsutherland1 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 While I can't speculate what Environment Canada might do, my guess is that the largest single snowstorm for Ottawa in February will amount to 10 cm-15 cm. Smaller events will likely account for a disproportionate share of the monthly snowfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sub_Zero Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 While I can't speculate what Environment Canada might do, my guess is that the largest single snowstorm for Ottawa in February will amount to 10 cm-15 cm. Smaller events will likely account for a disproportionate share of the monthly snowfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michsnowfreak Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 awful good thing there were no weather boards i wonder what type of winter it was on the east coast? I dont know, Im sure one of their climo guys can chime in...but for Detroit, every stat you look at is very high on the futility list (130+ years of records). 1952-53 @ Detroit Total snowfall: 16.6", which stands as the 7th least snowy winter on record (but only 3.7" more than the all-time low) Total 1"+ snowcover days: 16 days, which stands as the 5th barest winter on record Peak obs time snow depth: 2", which stands as the lowest of any winter on record Biggest snowstorm: 3.2", which only 8 winters saw a biggest snowstorm of less than 3.2" (4 of the 8 were 3.0", then a 2.8", 2.6", 2.4", and the alltime futility 2.1") Temperatures: Mean temp 32.3F, 8th warmest winter on record, including only ONE day with a low of 9F or colder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donsutherland1 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Winter 1952-53 had below normal snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic region and much below normal snowfall in southern New England. Boston had less than 30" (76 cm) snowfall for the winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayuud Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Winter 1952-53 had below normal snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic region and much below normal snowfall in southern New England. Boston had less than 30" (76 cm) snowfall for the winter. what about winter of 1947-1948? buffalo only had like 42 inches i think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Take a look at February 1978 in Ottawa. 2.2cm (less than an inch!) for the whole month!! http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climateData/dailydata_e.html?Prov=XX&timeframe=2&StationID=4337&Day=1&Month=2&Year=1978&cmdB1=Go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 Man, take a look at February 1972. That beats even February 1993. Look at the storm on February 3-4! http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climateData/dailydata_e.html?Prov=XX&timeframe=2&StationID=4337&Day=1&Month=2&Year=1972&cmdB1=Go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Winter 1952-53 had below normal snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic region and much below normal snowfall in southern New England. Boston had less than 30" (76 cm) snowfall for the winter. I believe that was craptastic winter for the majority of the nation. For here it was the last time the seasonal snowfall fell short of 30" on the season with only 27" for the whole winter. Per modern records ( 1947-current ) there was only one that was worse which was 1948-49 with just 18.3" on the season and thus the snowfall record for least snowfall in a season. Both were big torch winters except 48-49 had the massive cold in the west. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Winter 1952-53 had below normal snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic region and much below normal snowfall in southern New England. Boston had less than 30" (76 cm) snowfall for the winter. I believe that was craptastic winter for the majority of the nation. For here it was the last time the seasonal snowfall fell short of 30" on the season with only 27" for the whole winter. Per modern records ( 1947-current ) there was only one that was worse which was 1948-49 with just 18.3" on the season and thus the snowfall record for least snowfall in a season. Both were big torch winters except 48-49 had the massive cold in the west. how come? what kind of winter was it, in terms of ENSO and indices? do we have the data? sounds awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 how come? what kind of winter was it, in terms of ENSO and indices? do we have the data? sounds awful. ENSO was neutral. The winter before ( 51-52 ) had a weak nino. Near neutral/slightly negative PDO. Interestingly a -AO. Slightly negative NAO in both Dec and Feb but +0.33 for Jan. +0.93 PNA for Dec, +0.65 for Jan and +1.00 for Feb. A oddity for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 ENSO was neutral. The winter before ( 51-52 ) had a weak nino. Near neutral/slightly negative PDO. Interestingly a -AO. Slightly negative NAO in both Dec and Feb but +0.33 for Jan. +0.93 PNA for Dec, +0.65 for Jan and +1.00 for Feb. A oddity for sure. sounds a lot like this year! thanks for the info Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawa Blizzard Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Take a look at February 1976 in Quebec City. All I can say is...WOW. Look at all the snow that fell between February 17-22 and take a look at the the snow depth!! http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climateData/dailydata_e.html?timeframe=2&Prov=XX&StationID=5251&Year=1976&Month=2&Day=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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