The Best Way To Measure Winter As A Whole

April is winding down.  I was sitting on post this until the end of the month.  After all, we've had light snow in late April even early May in recent years so I wanted to be sure we could put a bow winter and store it away.  

How do we accurately measure winter as a whole?  More specifically how do we define a harsh winter? No one gold measurement standard exists.

Over the years, I've been toying with different ways to appropriately answer this question. I've posted this question on social media several times.  What I found out was that everyone remembers winter in their own way, much of which is strongly influenced by personal events that occurred coincident with specific winter weather events.  All of which seems highly subjective and personal.

We all see the weather through our own personal preset lens. Highly personal memories can alter our baseline perspective on weather (strong recency effect) especially when comparing current weather to past weather.  I remember posting follow up questions in response to many comments about winter. Some took the responses personally.  Their experiences were strong. These helped reinforce an already established weather vantage point. Their perspective was steadfast. Good luck changing it. I quickly found that the entire project slowly became an exercise in recognizing cognitive bias and recency effect.

Knowing all of this, I compiled several standard metrics (average temperatures and snowfall) used by the National Weather Service and NOAA with a few that I like to call "non-traditional metrics" that attempt to take into account public perception, recency effect and overall bias as outlines above. 

The result was a 21 different metrics that measure different components of the winter as a whole.  There is no 100% completely objective way to determine the harshness of winter but I think this is a great move forward. 

Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Snowfall vs normal
2. Average temperatures vs normal
3. Days with snow on the ground between December and February
4. Days with 1" snowfalls November through April
5. Days with 4" snowfalls November through April
6. Days below normal - DJF
7. Days below normal - January/February
8. Longest stretch highs under 30
9. Days with Highs under 30
10. Days with highs above 40
11. Days with highs under 20
12. Nights below zero
13. Days Wind Chill below zero
14. Days Wind Chill below -15
15. Longest stretch below normal temps DJF
16. Longest stretch snow on ground 1"+
17. Days under 30 degrees & wind gusts 20+ mph
18. Longest stretch between 40 degree days
19. March snowfall
20. April snowfall
21. Days between first and last snowfall

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I calculated all 21 metrics for each winter going back to the late 1940s.  Some of the wind chill data had to be reconstructed using temperatures and wind speed prior to the early 1970s. Once the numbers were found, I calculated a 15 year average for each one working back in time starting with this winter.  So the first 15 year period was 2011-2025, the second was 1996 to 2010 and so on.  My goal was to compare winters to the average of the winters close to it.  Each winter metric that was "harsher" than the 15 year average, I colored the block blue.

First chart is colored blue with the actual numbers.  The second is without the actual numbers and looks cleaner.

You'll notice that most of the extreme winters we remember are represented.  While this past winter (2024-25) was by most measures more "winter-like" than recent years, historically it was in the middle of the pack with 10 of the 21 metrics checked.

Here is the entire chart for reference: DOWNLOAD it since its a large image.

Chart without numbers.  DOWNLOAD it since its a large image.

The winter with a high number of blue boxes represents a harsher winter.

Here are some notable harsh winters:

Now notable not-so-harsh winters:

US and Great Lakes Snowfall Recap Thus Far

Snowfall across northern Ohio started out impressive in late November. More than 60"+ inches of snow fell in parts of the snowbelt. The most in parts of eastern Lake and the northern 2/3rds of Ashtabula county since the record setting lake effect event in November of 1996.

Photo: NWS Cleveland

Snow across northern Ohio and the Great Lakes started out with a bang in November and December. Here are some great images from Meteorologist Ben Noll showing snowfall vs normal by November 22 around the Great Lakes and nationally.

Snowfall vs Normal through November 22

After the big snow at the end of the month, snowfall recovered fast. Blue and Purple areas indicated WELL ABOVE seasonal snow.

Nationally through December 10:

Here is the snowfall vs normal map through December 18th:

Now snowfall vs normal through January 1st.  Notice how the departures began to drop around the Great Lakes snowbelt areas. Below normal snowfall the latter half of December.  The November snow kept the overall seasonal totals above normal.

National snowfall numbers also started to drop.

The snowfall decline accelerated in January. The snowbelts still had spots with seasonal snow above normal driven by the late November snows. Snowfall was well below normal since January. Much of the interior regions were running well below normal snowfall by early February.

The middle of the US, upper mid-west and most of the Ohio Valley was well below normal by early February.

By March 1st, the seasonal snow across the Great Lakes was almost back to normal. Snowbelt of northern Ohio, PA and western New York only slightly above due to the late November snowfall.

Seasonal snowfall across the US east of the Rocky Mountains through March 1 is characterized like this:

• Well below normal snowfall in the central US, upper mid-west, Ohio Valley including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and parts of New England.

• Slightly above normal snowfall in the Great Lakes snowbelts due to early season snow. Below normal snowfall since January 1st.

• Above normal snowfall in the south from southern Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.

• Above normal snowfall along the gulf coast due to the late January record snowfall:

Ohio and Pennsylvania snow depth animation from November 20 through March 3:

My next post will dive into northern Ohio snowfall further comparing this year to years similar