What Period Of Time Had The Most Lake Erie Ice Cover?

Lake Erie ice coverage - Photo Courtesy: Scott Sabol, January 2011

High Resolution Satellite - March 8,2019

It took a while but I finally finished plotting the daily Lake Erie ice coverage for each season since 1972. I separated this into month periods starting with November and ending with May.  This is all color coded. 

• Light blue blocks indicates ice coverage under 1%
• Bright blue is 2% to 10%
• Dark Blue is 11% to 25%
• Purple is 26% to 50%
• Pink is 51% to 74%
• White indicates at least 75% coverage

You'll notice several things here:

1. Significant ice typically doesn't develop until late December.
2. Mid/late 1970s AND the early 2000s stand out as the most significant ice coverage period in  January and early Februar
3. First half of February is typically the peak for ice coverage
4. November 23, 2014 was the earliest ice cover
5. May 17, 1982 was the latest ice cover 

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

The entire graphic assembled through winter of 2018-19

Monstrously HUGE Winter Scorecard. It's All Here!

The entire winter scorecard for each winter since the snowiest winter on record (2004-05) in northern Ohio.

I included these parameters:

* AVERAGE TEMPS (DEC-FEB)

* DEC-FEB TEMPERATURE RANKS

* AVERAGE TEMPS VS NORMAL (15 YEAR AVERAGE)

* AVERAGE TEMPS (THANKSGIVING TO MARCH 20)

* LIQUID PRECIP

* DAYS WITH SNOW ON THE GROUND (ONE INCH)

* PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL DAYS (WINTER) WITH ONE INCH

* TOTAL DAYS BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST SNOWFALL

* TOTAL DAYS WITH 3" SNOWFALLS

* MAX 3 DAY SNOWFALL

* MAX ONE DAY SNOWFALL

* SEASONAL SNOW TOTAL

* NUMBER OF DAYS ABOVE NORMAL

* DAYS ABOVE 60

* DAYS ABOVE 40

* NIGHTS BELOW 20

* NIGHTS BELOW ZERO

The scorecard is uploaded in two parts. If you want something else added to this list, let me know.

Recent Seasonal Snowfall Totals - Northern Ohio/Midwest/US - Part II

We start the snowfall retrospective with last winter's (2019-2020) snow totals in northern Ohio.

Last year was the 5th straight year with below normal snowfall. The longest stretch of below normal seasonal snowfall was 9 winters between 1963 to 1972. 

Here are the average snowfall totals for northern Ohio. (Color contours are different than the image above)

How about the last 10 winters?  Here are the local snowfall amounts. Colors might be different year to year.

Last year's running snowfall accumulations really tell the story when compared to other years.  (Hat tip to Jared Rennie for supplying these snowfall graphics below)

CLEVELAND

AKRON-CANTON AIRPORT

MANSFIELD

CHARDON

NORWALK

OBERLIN

Snowfall history since 1900. Black line is the 10 years running average.

Snowfall history since 1940

Snowfall history since 1960

Snowfall history since 2000

Snowfall departures since 2000 (red are years below normal. Blue above normal)

Number of days with at least ONE INCH of snow on the ground each winter

Number of days with at least ONE INCH of snowfall

What are the winter with the MOST/LEAST one inch+ snows?

What are the winters with the MOST/LEAST DAYS with at least 1" snow on the ground?

What has been the snowiest decade in Cleveland?

Ohio, Indiana and portions of Michigan saw below normal snowfall last winter. Yet snow was above normal snowfall across Illinois and the upper midwest.

Notice the high snow numbers across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Overall snowfall departures last winter across midwest/Great Lakes. 

The last 5 winters (2014-15 to 2018-19) snowfall vs normal below. Last time Ohio had above normal snowfall was 2014-15.

How about the rest of the country? US snowfall vs normal over the last 6 winters. Purple is above normal snowfall. Tan/brown colors are below normal. (Thanks goes out to Jared Rennie for the images)  Last image is the winter of 2014-15.

Part III of the 3 part series will highlight Lake Erie Ice History...