The long, long winter...this year compared to last year

I've had a lot of people ask me about this current winter. They seem think that it has gone on "forever".  ("Forever" is a relative term, of course.) Well, it has seemed to have been a long one. That being said, I figured it was time (on this first day of spring) to go back and compare this winter with last winter.  This may surprise you, but the total snowfall difference from December 1 to March 20 this winter compared to last winter is officially less than 2".

For purposes of comparison I'm going to use the official snowfall figures from the National Weather Service at Akron/Canton Regional Airport.  Of course northern Portage and Summit counties received much more snow do to lake effect, but the general pattern is the same. We just had more of it up north. (Note that, according to the Record-Courier newspaper, Dr. Thomas Schmidlin of Kent State University has measured 116" of snow in Kent so far this winter, but that's the snow belt for you.)

From December 1, 2009 to March 20, 2010 (last winter) we officially had 61.2" of snow.  For the same period this winter we had 62.9" of snow. That's less than 2" inches difference.

So, looking at the similarity in snowfall amounts, why does this winter seem so bad? There's a good reason.  This year each month (December through February) had similar amounts of snowfall. (See the chart below) Last winter, we had more snow in February alone than we did in the two previous months combined. So, while last year most of the snow fell in one month (February), this year it has fallen more evenly and consistently throughout the winter, thus making it seem that this winter has gone on forever.

So, there ya go!

                         Last Winter          This Winter

December              9.3"                      19.5"        

January                 14.7"                     18.9"

February               37.2"                     18.4"

March (1-20)        Trace                      6.1"


TOTAL                61.2"                    62.9"