Tri-City winter summary past 3 years (Richland, Prosser: 2015, power lines, to buy)

[pnwguy2]

Since I moved back to the Tri in 2015 I have been keeping somewhat meticulous records of weather, mostly high temps. Here is a look back at the the past four (all stats from the official weather station at PSC).

2014-2015:

Mild overall. A couple of days of light snowfall, though nothing accumulated much over 1 inch. Many 70+ days in March '15.

2015-2016:

Average temps throughout this winter. Cold spell around New Years. January 2016 average high slightly below normal at 40, but February 2016 was warmer with an average of 52. Like the previous winter, little snow, and when it did fall it was usually less than an inch and didn't accumulate beyond a day.

2016-2017:

All hell breaks loose. Persistent moisture from the west/northwest meets cold air from the north. Over 28 inches of snow for the season, making it one of the area's worst. And it didn't melt much. Average high in December was 36, compared to a normal 40. Average high in January was 27, compared to a normal 42.

February continued the trend with an average of 40 compared to 48. The temp did not rise above 50 until February 28th, and March ended up below average at 56. (April and May quickly warmed up however, with a high of 90 on May 4th.

2017-2018:

Back to normal, apparently. One day of snow (Christmas Day...about 2.5 inches, followed by an ice storm a couple days later.) But that was it. Since those holiday storms, high temps have averaged either normal or above normal for January, February, and March 2018.

Conclusions: Winter in Tri-Cities generally is pretty benign. The 2016-2017 winter was exceedingly abnormal, but is a good reminder these type of patterns can set up once once every decade or two on average.

[Tall Traveler]

I've spent a number of winters in the Tri and a pattern like you've described is normal. Normal winters are cloudy, cool mild but you get the occasional winter like 2016-2017 every 5-10 years or so. Nevertheless, when I retire soon, I intend to winter in Arizona and spend the rest of the year in Richland.

[pnwguy2]

Right on. I think your plan is a good one. I will say that many winter in the Tri, and that is OK with usual mild winters as described above. When the Columbia Basin gets hits with a severe winter, (every decade or so), you just have to shake it off, realizing it isn't common. So here we are today with the usual cold rebound that can indeed happen in April, but for the most part, the weather will likely warm up quickly.

[M3 Mitch]

The '16-'17 winter would not have bothered me as much if I was retired. It was a PITA getting from out past Prosser into Richland for work.

If you heat with wood, it behooves you to have an adequate supply on hand, for the when, not if, of that kind of winter re-occurring.

At least the power stayed on, although, unlike the Deep South, we seldom get ice storms as such, the snow does not build up on power lines, not many trees to load up with snow and break onto the lines either.

[Moon Waffle]

I’ve lived here off and on for 40 years. We get a heavy snowfall, on average, about every four years. It’s not a perfect four year cycle, but it averages out to about that. On the flip side, you can pretty much expect that one out of every four winters will have little to no snowfall.

My advice to newbies is to buy a snow shovel, but no need for a snow blower.

[pnwguy2]

Depends on your definition of heavy snowfall. The average is 6-7 inches per winter. If you consider that heavy, then so be it, but it really isn't heavy spread out over the entire winter. I think a better stat would be once every 10-15 years.

[M3 Mitch]

I have been here since '91, and that 2016 winter was unique in my experience, in terms of having snow on the ground for, what, 6 weeks or so? And the cold that stayed around, of course the cold being the reason the snow stayed.

I would agree we get a significant snow about every 4 years, give or take, in terms of me having to shovel it.

[pnwguy2]

The winter of '16-'17 had several multi-inch snow events, but also some melting in between.

As a weather geek, I documented it all!

First snow was 12/6/16, followed by an inch on 12/9/16, then 4-5 inches on 12/12/16. A couple more inches on 12/15/16. But the following two weeks brought temps back into the 40's.

Just when we thought we were out of the woods, January brought in another multi-inch snowfall on 1/2/17, followed by an extreme cold wave with high temps well below freezing for the following 2 weeks. On 1/13/17, the high at PSC was a mere 8 degrees. The cycle broke somewhat on 1/19/17 when the temp reached 40. The first half of February was also well below normal with temperatures. By the end of February, temps had rebounded to normal and stayed at normal levels the rest of the winter into spring '17.

Note to Mitch...perhaps your location had more snow and even colder weather than PSC.

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

The winter of '16-'17 had several multi-inch snow events, but also some melting in between.

As a weather geek, I documented it all!

First snow was 12/6/16, followed by an inch on 12/9/16, then 4-5 inches on 12/12/16. A couple more inches on 12/15/16. But the following two weeks brought temps back into the 40's.

Just when we thought we were out of the woods, January brought in another multi-inch snowfall on 1/2/17, followed by an extreme cold wave with high temps well below freezing for the following 2 weeks. On 1/13/17, the high at PSC was a mere 8 degrees. The cycle broke somewhat on 1/19/17 when the temp reached 40. The first half of February was also well below normal with temperatures. By the end of February, temps had rebounded to normal and stayed at normal levels the rest of the winter into spring '17.

Note to Mitch...perhaps your location had more snow and even colder weather than PSC.

I am pretty sure it was colder with more snow in Prosser. I more or less forgot about the December '16 snow, didn't bother me much. It was the 1/2/17 snowpocalypse, with the subsequent plunge in temperatures, lasting through most of January and February, that gave me problems.

Like I posted before, this had never happened to me since 1991, when I first moved to this area.

[diceyhot]

We're in the final stages of relocating and just recently threw the Tri-cities into the hat. I had never considered it before because I was always under the impression winters are worse than what they really are. And I'm a Coug! But I'm from Western WA and admit to only ever passing through TC rarely and during warmer months.

So what makes winters in TC more mild than surrounding parts? I've spent the past 10 years in Billings, MT so looking at historical records I would definitely classify a typical TC winter as mild. That's what really got me considering it as a relocation possibility. I was so shocked to find out it got so little snow.

This past winter we got over 106" and it struggled to melt. We had something like 35 continuous days of at least 5" of snow depth and that carried into MARCH! The average February high was 26 - average low was nearly 5! - and more than 32" of snow! When February can commonly be worse than January it can get kind of miserable feeling. And the winds are strong here during winter. Those wonderful arctic winds from Canada!

Suffice it to say I got a little excited when I actually looked into TC weather further. Now we just need to examine the economy a little more.