I can not think of anyplace that is having an unseasonably nice winter this year. It is even brisk here.
But how does this winter compare with the honkin’evil winters of WWII? Or the Hunger Winter of '46?
Or to ask it another way, which years had the worst winter over the last 100 years or so?
'62-63 was nippy in London.
'79-80 was fabulously cold here in Chicago; if my memory serves me we did not get above freezing the entire calendar month of January.
'83 was chilly in Antarctica: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/thestorybehindearthscoldesttemperatureever
Two weeks ago, it was nasty. Today it is well above average. I would even say it was quite nice. I don’t think a brief cold snap is particularly revealing of anything. I don’t know of any records that were broken this year, but I’m interested to find out.
I remember that we had a cold snap in the late nineties that broke records in middle Illinois. I think it was '99 or '00.
The snowpack in some areas of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest is way down from normal. I was up at Mount St. Helens last week and the road was clear. Had this been a normal winter, the road should have been under ten feet of snow the last 30 miles and I should have been in a snowcat.
The real downside is the lack of snow means long-term moisture levels will be down this spring and summer, meaning the PNW drought continues. (Year eight I think?) An early dry spring means an earlier dry summer which could lead to a hot fire season. Of course, I didn’t mention lower water levels in reservoirs from lack of spring snowmelt. And that’s a host of other potential problems later this year.
Phoenix gets an average of 8.3" of rain per year. If the storm tomorrow delivers as predicted, we could receive 80% or our average yearly rainfall this week (we got more than an inch so far, and as much as five inches are predicted tomorrow).
It’s unseasonably warm here. Last couple weeks it’s been hovering around -3C, which is 10 degrees or so above seasonal averages.
Time to wash and wax the car!
It’s pretty nice here in Seattle. In the 50s for the last two days, rain not snow for the couple of days before. Only one real snow in the past 3 months.
Been pretty warm in Islamabad. Usually its below freezing every night in December, Jan and early Feb and it rains and outside the city snows all the time.
Not a drop of rain or a snowflake this winter.
I’m in Afghanistan and there has barely been any snow below the mountainline and there have been several days above 60 in the last 30 days.
I came here prepared for the “brutal Afghan winter” but it’s been incredibley mild for the 2nd year in a row.
“Was” this winter? It’s not even Groundhog Day, yet!
Yes. Winter is far from over.
But what I want to know is compared to the winter the Nazis spent outside of Moscow in '43, how does this one stack up?
Hm, I do not really think that the winter of '43 was actually more or less brutal than any other winter, it was a derth of proper equipment issued the troops if I can remember. I believe the consensus is that Hitler was freaking nuts, and considered his army would roll through and didnt really need exceptional equipment to deal with the cold, snow and other localized conditions. The pullback and actually losing substantial equipment didnt help either, any rout organized or not is going to have hardship conditions. It isnt location location location in the military, it is logistics logistics logistics :rolleyes:
I am sure a real historian will be along to correct me shortly =)
Depending on where you live (in the northern hemisphere) it will be ending in either February or March. Do you really consider mid-January as Spring? :eek:
Right now, New Hampshire is having the first seasonally typical winter in a few years. The average snowfall total from Nov-April is 60" and the past two winters had 122" and 90" inches. So far we are way under the last two year’s totals, so we might only get the normal amount of snow this winter. knock on wood.
1962/63 was the last time lake of Zürich/Switzerland froze over. Before that, it did so in 1929 and 1891. It has not done so since.
Here in Ohio we still remember the the Blizzard of 1978.
Brrrr.
Agree. In recent years, the really bad weather has been around February.
“Bad winter”?
Paul, you haven’t been in the Middle East long enough. A cool winter with lots of rain is a *good *winter.