TheClimateChanger

Looks like summers have been pretty hot too. 7 of the top 15 (since 1879) have occurred on or after 2002, and 10 have occurred on or after 1991. All of them within a degree of the mythical dust bowl summer of 1936. Further, of the years with the most maximum temperatures at or above 80, 5 of the top 10 have occurred since 2007, and 7 of 10 since 1991.

Nonsense, probably already high grass. This December was 3.4F warmer than January 1932 in Detroit - were you mowing the lawn on Christmas?

In any event, I have a fair idea of the magnitude of warming since the city office continued to report weather conditions through 1979. It averaged 2.6F warmer over those nearly three decades, and even more so on good radiational cooling nights. There were likely many 5F nights that would have gotten to zero or below at the airport.

I guess you missed where I also noted 400-500 feet in elevation gain. That would be like using NWS White Lake [at nearly 1000'] for Detroit records. A good chunk of the so-called urban heat island effect is simply because cities tended to develop in river valleys or on lake/coastal Plains and the surrounding suburbs and rural sites are in more elevated upland locations.

Ouch, ugly.

Saw this on the Tennessee Valley forum. Pretty bleak to be honest around these parts. Looks like 8 or 9" over the next 46 days. Would be sitting around 20" on the season on March 15. The mean wasn't much better - around 10.5 to 11.5 inches. Far cry from the graphic Mark Margavage shared the other day on X.

What a mild winter it has been in Clearfield County! Crazy stuff! Enjoy the weather, it's the only weather you got.

Cope, brother. I'll be enjoying my bonus spring for at least the first half of February.

February has been bonus spring in 3 of the last 7 years (2017, 40.6; 2018, 38.8; and 2023, 39.7). Might as well make it 4 of 8. For reference, the March mean from 1961-1990 was 39.4F.

Huh? @michsnowfreakis always complaining about the heat island at DTW. What have I been reading on here for decades?

Somebody needs to audit the DTW thermometer as well. I was just looking at winter to date figures, and noticed Detroit is only running 0.1F warmer than Flint. Detroit has almost always been 1.5 to 2.0F warmer than Flint. Suddenly, in the year of our lord 2024, that immutable reality has broken down and now they are about the same temperature. Exact opposite of what you would predict with the urban heat island effect and latitude difference. Weird.

There were definitely still some piles near my place in some of the larger parking lots, at least until Friday or Saturday morning.

Would be crazy if we had two straight sub-20" winters at the airport. That was one of the few redeeming qualities of the Pittsburgh climate noted during the March 2018 storm. I was looking at that thread a couple weeks ago, trying to find some of our most recent, bigger storms. On the plus side, one frequent complaint in that thread was the I-95 corridor getting clobbered all the time, and that activity seems to have died down in recent years.

Also climbing on this list. I know people hate when I do this, but it's just a fact. I included enough years to get to 2002, as that was the prior warmest December & January combo observed at KPIT. Despite no recent years being particularly close to Top 10 warmest for December & January, torchy Februarys in 2017 and last year have those winter seasons at 10th warmest [tied with 1918-19 & 1997-98] and 8th warmest, respectively.

How does the monthly precipitation total rank for January 2024?

Up to 5.02” of precipitation on the month, which is good for 9th most in the threaded record. Actually, back to 1836 if you include the Allegheny Arsenal records as in the NWS Pittsburgh table: https://www.weather.gov/pbz/climate Some more rain moving in this morning, so there will be an opportunity to move up on the list. Looks like only two wetter Januarys since 1950: 1978 & 2005.

Yes. I wasn’t sharing for the commentary, just for the track. But I had the same thought. A track right over New York City and into north central Pennsylvania isn’t exactly ideal for snow from the city north into Boston, regardless of the airmass in place.

Only possible on a poorly sited, warm-biased rooftop station. Snow that heavy should drop the surface air temperature to 32 or 33.

Some of you have unrealistic expectations. Climate is not static. It’s probably the case that snowfall over the last seven years is more normal for DC’s climate today than snowfall decades ago. Just look at temperatures, the mean for December & January is 8th warmest overall dating to the early 1870s, yet 6 of the preceding 22 winters were as warm or warmer over that time frame. Two others are within a half degree (2017, 2020). Counting this winter, fully 9 of the past 23 winters had a December & January mean of at least 42F - a reading that in the past would be considered extreme. That means these conditions are more or less normal over the past quarter century. This is not an atypical DC winter - this is a typical DC winter of the 21st century. There is a very strong negative correlation between temperature and snowfall, so it only stands to reason that snowfall, on the average, would be less. Also 80 degree readings in January might not be that extreme. Yes, it’s only happened once in recorded history now. But in the current climate era, it might be an event expected to occur once a decade or so. We don’t have enough data to say so.

Good stuff. Here's the same comparison, except with the city that fans of old school TWC might recall as "the best location in nation - Cleveland, Ohio." @michsnowfreak put the 2003-04 snow hole out of his memory. Don't know what was going on in 1918-19, it's more than a foot below any other year.