How winter has compared to normal and how it will compare through January

 

Believe it or not, we are nearly halfway through meteorological winter! But how does this season shape up when compared to average?

When it comes to snow, Mother Nature has fallen short. In December, we saw just under 9” of snow whereas in a typical year, we’d expect to have seen 13.7” by now. January has been even less snowy with a grand total of 0.4” of snowfall, much lower than the average of 6.2” typically seen by this point in the month.

The combined amount of snow we’ve seen so far this meteorological winter sits at 9.3”, less than 50% of the expected snowfall amount of nearly 20” by this time in the season.

As many have probably noticed, this winter season has been fairly mild temperature-wise. Heating degree days are a way to estimate how much energy is used based on temperature - the higher the number, the more energy that is used to heat your house.

While December came very close to the normal value for heating degree days, January is well under what we usually see by this point in the month. This lower number is due to abnormally warm temperatures that we’ve seen so far since the new year began.

Temperatures throughout the 10-day forecast are staying unseasonably warm with our outlook over the next couple weeks showing a very similar trend. We have a 72% chance of seeing above-average temperatures from next Wednesday, January 18 to the following Tuesday, January 24.

Precipitation through the end of the month also looks more likely than not to be above average, meaning we should have wetter than normal conditions for the rest of January.

We are very likely to see warmer than average temperatures and wetter conditions extend through the end of the month and into the beginning of February.