The Winter Symphony Performance: Forecast review
South Bend, Ind -- Back in November, you may have seen the musical themed forecast composition, The Winter Symphony. In that forecast I predicted 53 inches of snow and 4 nights below zero, but a winter with above normal temperatures.
Looking at the numbers the snowfall fell flat, but the tone of the forecast was in tune. This winter was the snowiest since 2022 and coldest since 2020 but still finished technically mild with below normal snowfall.
All data was compiled by NOAA / National Weather Service
Both January and February had two-week bouts of bitter cold, but January was the month that really fell short. Our snowiest month did not receive major snow, the biggest snow-day was just 3.5 inches on January 23rd.
Instead, record snowfall fell across the gulf coast of the United States. A specific event that you could not forecast in November.
The weak La Niña pattern did play out, and the Polar Vortex did tilt in our direction, but a major storm never hit our region, nor did a big lake effect snow event, for much of the area.
You can read more in our Meteorological Winter Recap and the seasonal climate summary from the National Weather Service.