Winter 2022-23 Recap - Part II - Snowfall

January 2023

Snowfall across northern Ohio has been well below normal for 8 straight winters now.

Snow totals for northern Ohio via NWS:

The last winter with above normal snowfall was 2014-15. Even that winter was only a few inches above average.

Here is an animation showing the last 7 winters snowfall for northern Ohio. The last winter the snowfall had widespread 120" snow totals was the winter 2017-18.

2014-15 winter snowfall totals.  The last well above normal snowfall winter.

Here are the snowfall totals going back to the late 1930s at Hopkins Airport.

Snowfall history for Cleveland since 1893 (Cleveland downtown then Hopkins Airport)

Our first snow was in late October

The snow was highly localized around the Great Lakes. Most was due to lake effect.

Western New York was hit with a huge lake effect snow event a week before Thanksgiving.

We had another snowfall around Christmas.  Amounts were fairly low but widespread.

The overall winter storm track was well north of the Ohio Valley.  The track of the five big snow events illustrates this very well.

Using the winter storm severity index (more on that HERE), the mid December snow storm was ranked the 4th worst in the last 30 years

Christmas week snowfall

Mid January snowfall

Late February snowfall

It wasn't until mid March before the pattern changed allowing snowfall to shift south into Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Really detailed animation showing snowfall vs normal from the start of the season through the end. H/T Jered Rennie

A closer look at the snowfall departures around the Great Lakes.  Above normal snowfall from central Iowa, Wisconsin and the northern Great Lakes.(blue colors).  Tan colors show below normal snowfall

Here are the final daily snowfall/snow on the ground details for northern Ohio:

Winter 2022-23 Recap - Part I - Temperatures

This is a recap I should have posted months ago.  As we are on the eve of the FOX 8 Winter Outlook for winter 2023-24, now is a great time for a detailed recap of last winter--or the lack of winter.  Below will be numerous charts bar graphs highlighting various metric we use in describing the overall winter.  Most of these revolve around temperatures and snow. I like to give historical and spatial perspective with each metric.  So what you will see are bar graphs (for Cleveland, Ohio - December through February unless otherwise noted) and maps (for some) highlighting some of the metrics versus normal. 

Overall temperatures for northern Ohio (Cleveland) were well above normal last winter

Winter 2022-23 was the 3rd warmest on record!

Winter temperatures were well above normal for most of the Great Lakes, mid-west and Ohio Valley

Overall winter temperature ranks were top 10 from Texas, the entire gulf coast and up the eastern seaboard

68 of the 89 possible days had high temperatures above normal!

Number of days with high temperatures UNDER 30 (Lowest since 1997-98. Second lowest since 1871)

Number of days with high temperatures at/above 40 (Third highest and most since 1931-32)

Number of days with high temperatures at/above 50

Number of days with low temperatures at/under 20

This animation shows the temperatures across the US starting November 1 through February for each 15 days period.  Red indicates above normal.  Blue is below normal.  Notice how variable the temperatures were in November and December vs January and February. 

Temperatures around Christmas week 2022 were bitterly cold across much of the middle of the US. Many thought the cold in mid/late December was an indication of a colder January.

The temperature pattern flipped bigtime in January!

January max and min temperatures across the US (map courtesy Brian Brettschneider)

December temperatures vs normal

Final January and February temperatures vs normal

Final winter temperatures - Dec through Feb versus normal