Vernal Equinox is today. So how COLD was this winter?

The Vernal Equinox is at 12:57PM Eastern Daylight Time.  Astronomical winter is over!

While the meteorological winter is far from following in the footsteps of the earth's tilt and position around the sun, it gives us a good time to look back at the official season of winter to determine how COLD it actually was versus other winter similar to it.

Image: Wunderground

 

Back in February, I mentioned 4 indicators of winter severity.  1) TOTAL SNOWFALL, 2) DAYS WITH SNOW ON THE GROUND 3) AVERAGE TEMPERATURE & 4) NIGHTS BELOW 10 DEGREES.  Was this winter among the coldest and snowiest all-time? Where did this winter rank?

Each graph will show where this year resides ALL-TIME which goes back to 1871. Many have mentioned how this winter is the coldest in a generation. So I created a second graph which shows the the information over the last 40 winters (since 1975) for a more recent perspective.

SNOWFALL

RANKS 9th ALL-TIME

 77.0"

  

LAST 40 WINTERS

4 WINTERS IN THE EARLY 2000s HAD MORE SNOW THAN THIS WINTER!

DAYS/SNOW ON GROUND MORE THAN 1"

RANKS 5th ALL-TIME

 79 DAYS

THIS WINTER IS TIED WITH 2010-11 AND 2002-03 FOR DAYS WITH SNOW COVER GREATER THAN 1 INCH:  

NIGHTS BELOW 10 DEGREES

RANKS 11th ALL-TIME

26 NIGHTS

THE LAST WINTER WITH MORE NIGHTS BELOW 10 DEGREES WAS WINTER 1978-79

AVERAGE TEMPERATURE

RANKS 20th ALL-TIME

COLDEST SINCE 1993-94

5TH COLDEST IN THE LAST 40 WINTERS

 

Don't Walk on the Lake Erie Ice!

We see people walking on the Lake Erie ice every year when the lake ice cover is significant. Why people would take this chance especially this time of year when the ice becomes very unstable is beyond me. DON'T WALK ON LAKE ERIE THIS TIME OF YEAR!

The lake ice begins to crack and thin as the overall temperatures begin to climb in late March and early April. The sun angle is also higher so the sun is much stronger than what it was a month ago.

Look at the record setting ice cover statistics from the winter of 1977-78. From March 15th to April 9th, the ice went from 95% to 34%.  A loss of 61% in 3 1/2 weeks!

Expect this trend this year heading into early April. Remember, all of this melting and thinning continues to occur even when we have temporary cold spells.

So don't be fooled. Stay away from the ice!