BIG Myth: My Area Doesn't Get Snow Like We Used To (temperatures, days)
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I don't feel like going backwards and checking records, but I will say that recent winters have had either well below normal snowfall or well above normal snowfall.
Which put together make the "average," right?
It doesn't snow here, in SoCal, but it's well know that we have been in a drought for several years. And yet, if you add up the rainfall in Los Angeles for the past twelve years (not counting this season, which is still ongoing), the average is 12.7 inches, only two inches below the historical average of 14.7. And the actual yearly rainfall during those twelve years has ranged from 3.2 to 38 inches!
You have to go all the way back to 1974-5 to find a year in which the "average" amount of 14 inches actually fell. We tend to either go under, or a LOT over.
It doesn't snow here, in SoCal, but it's well know that we have been in a drought for several years. And yet, if you add up the rainfall in Los Angeles for the past 12 years (not counting this season, which is still ongoing), the average is 12.7 inches, only two inches below the historical average of 14.7. And the actual yearly rainfall has ranged from 3.2 to 38 inches!
You have to go all the way back to 1974-5 to find a year in which the "average" amount of 14 inches actually fell. We tend to either go under, or a LOT over.
I would say more or less. Thinking about the last several years I think that 2011, 2014, 2015 all had harsh winters and the other years had mild winters. So far this seems to be a milder winter even if the first half of December was like mid January.
I too believe it doesn't snow as much as in past years. When you asked for data I went on a search. I found this website https://howmuchwillitsnow.com/in/kenosha/wi It shows each day over 5 years and the amount of snow recorded that day. In 2020 southeast Wisconsin is down 43%. Thank you to the creators of the site that collected the data. Jeff
Thus...if you disagree with me...and actually have stats/proof that your area snows less now "than it used to"...I would like you to post it here.
I need a definition of "snows less", and "than it used to", to be able to take up the challenge! Most importantly, what is the time involved?
I've looked at the data for over a thousand USHCN sites, and a lot of them have snow data. Some show less snow over a hundred year period, others little change, and some show more snow.
You bring up an interesting point. I know for a fact that my part of Oklahoma doesn't get the snowfall that I had when I was a child. I remember it snowing every single Winter; sometimes quite deep. It rarely ever gets that much snow these days.
Same here. But 4" of snow this morning is more at a time than recent winters. But it's getting kinda late in the season, and the fact that the snow had already become wet to slushy on sidewalks and streets by mid morning reflects it's been a warm winter.
The unforgettable Christmas Eve Blizzard of 2009 is the last really unusually heavy snow storm I can recall.
You bring up an interesting point. I know for a fact that my part of Oklahoma doesn't get the snowfall that I had when I was a child. I remember it snowing every single Winter; sometimes quite deep. It rarely ever gets that much snow these days.
"When I was a small child the snow was almost up to my knees! Now it rarely gets up to my ankles."
This is absolutely not a myth in the UK, it's very clear in the statistics that snowfall here is far, far less now than it was in the 1900-1960 period.
This is absolutely not a myth in the UK, it's very clear in the statistics that snowfall here is far, far less now than it was in the 1900-1960 period.
Definitely, and what you'd expect warming a climate like the UK which is fairly marginal temperature wise for snow and has plenty of winter moisture. BBC reports that the number of snow days per year has gone down from 20-30 in Merseyside in the 1961-90 period to 10-20 in the 1981-2010 period. Would be interesting to see the the data for the last 30 years as it seems noticeable how little snow there has been recently compared with the 1990s.
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Here is the data.
