Category: Snow Southwest Michigan

January and Seasonal Snowfall Totals for Both Michigan and then the CONUS

Over Michigan, November and December featured well below normal snowfall. The first 2 1/2 weeks of January seem to be making up some of that deficit. Over the rest of the CONUS, seasonal snowfall mostly remains below normal.

Here Is a Summary of our Impressive Winter Storm from January 12th through the 15th

A rapidly deepening storm tracked Texas on Thursday afternoon to the northern Great Lakes by Saturday morning. The storm brought 1 to 2 feet of snow from Nebraska, across Iowa, Wisconsin then into Michigan. Strong winds accompanied the storm then the coldest air in several years followed the storm with dangerously cold wind chills over most of the Northern and Central Midwest. That cold air caused heavy lake effect snow in Michigan, near Buffalo New York and over the Tug Hill Plateau in the Adirondack Mountains, down wind of Lake Ontario.

A Look at the January 9-10th Storm and some impacts

This storm brought heavy snow to the Midwest and parts of the Great Lakes, then there were damaging winds over the eastern Seaboard, as well as flooding. Severe storms and over a dozen tornadoes occurred over the Southeast sections.

Revisiting This December being One of the Warmest on Record for Most of the Western Great Lakes and Northern Plains and a Brief Look at the 2nd Least Percent Snow Cover on Record for December over the Continental United States (CONUS)

I have had quiet a few question on if we will have White Christmas this year. This post will try to answer that.

The short story is if you live in the central or eastern CONUS it is very unlikely you’ll have snow on the ground Christmas morning.

I have updated this to show the percent snow cover and ENSO state for each of the 10 years. At the end I have 2 tables that show the years with the ENSO index numbers and the snow cover for that Christmas. The bottom table sorts the percent snow cover from highest to lowest to see if there is a correlation between the ENSO state and the percent snow cover on Christmas day.

Area Covered By Snow:53%
In 2022, ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) was -1.0 while the MEI index was -1.0 making this a moderate La Niña.
Area Covered By Snow:26.6%
2021 was a moderate La Niña, the ONI index was -1.2 while the MEI index was -1.0.
Area Covered By Snow:26.5%
2020 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at +0.5 while the MEI index was 0.3.
Area Covered By Snow:28.1%

2019 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at +0.7 while the MEI index was 0.1.
Area Covered By Snow:24.6%
2018 was a weak La Niña, the ONI index was -0.9 while the MEI index was -0.8.
Area Covered By Snow:49.0%
2017 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at -0.3 while the MEI index was -0.4.
Area Covered By Snow:44.1%
Area Covered By Snow:
24.6%
2016 was a strong El Niño, the ONI index was +2.5 while the MEI index was +1.9. The ONI at 2.5 was an all time record for the ONI index.
Area Covered By Snow:37.2%
2015 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at 0.5 while the MEI index was 0.2. This was the start of the strong El Niño that lasted from the spring of 2016 into the spring of 2017.
Area Covered By Snow:35.5%
2014 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at -0.4 while the MEI index was -0.5.
Area Covered By Snow:41.7%
2013 was ENSO neutral with the ONI index at -0.4 while the MEI index was 0.0.

Below is a table showing the percent snow cover on Christmas

Below is a table showing the percent snow cover on Christmas Day in chronological order.

Below is a table showing ENSO numbers and the percent snow cover on Christmas day for that year sorted from the highest percent snow cover to the lowest. There does not seem to be a significant correlation to the ENSO state and the percent snow cover on Christmas Day.

I thought it would be fun to look at our Fall of 2023 climate and now close what happened came to what would typically happen during an El Niño Fall.

In our string of nationally much warmer than normal seasons, the fall of 2023 was 124th out of 129 falls for warmer than normal. This puts this fall warmer than 96% of all falls since 1895! No area of the CONUS had a below normal temperatures (bottom 1/3 coldest) this fall.