The final total was 177 cm compared to the average of 159.5 cm, it came down to the wire as the last real storm of the season on March 23/24 was what put us above the average.
From the graph (see below) you can see why I called it a "back end loaded" snowfall season. We were well below average until late January and then the switch got turned and we got storm after storm until mid-March.
The reason for this was that a zone of high pressure set up over Quebec during the fall and stayed around until late January. This meant that the jet stream was pushed further south and thus most of the storms were also deflected south of the Great Lakes. This pattern broke down in February and we returned to a more typical La Nina winter pattern with the jet stream coming over the Great Lakes. As storms are often carried along the jet stream it meant a lot more precipitation for us.
This pattern has continued on with what has been a pretty wet spring so far (and more rain in the forecast).
I also want to give a big thanks to my snow measurement volunteers: Melinda, Eric, and Jayson who helped gather the data during this year's snowfall season!
Posts
3 comments:
Didn't we have like 5 cm sometimes early April?
This is where it gets tricky when we have both rain and snow on the same day. We did have some heavy wet snow that day as well as some rain which melted away the snow.
Now if we had full time weather observers who could measure the maximum amount of snow during a 24 hour period we would have caught the snow.
Unfortunately we have to rely on volunteers (who do a great job don't get me wrong - yea snow measurment volunteers!) the most I can ask is for a single snow measurement a day. Thus by the time the daily reading took place the snow for the day had melted from the rain.
This hurts us during these mixed precipitation events but we are limited by our resources.
Great commentary, Frank -- I enjoyed the clear and concise explanation of the switch from low to high precip over the season.
Post a Comment