TheClimateChanger

Paltry calendar year for snow so far across northern Ohio. A few sites eyeing a record if we get a mild December. Toledo and Cleveland doing a bit better than most with the recent snowfall at those locations, although some of that is simply a result of longer PORs at those sites. While this is the 12th least snowiest calendar year to date in the Cleveland threaded climate record, only three years at CLE airport have seen less snowfall to date (1998, 1946 & 1961). Due to a lot of missing data and irregularities in the early snowfall data in the MFD and YNG threads, these are based only on years with less than 50 missing days. Wanted to select a target that would allow the most data possible, while excluding clearly erroneous data. Of course, that also means some of the early years may have had more snow than shown - although I believe most of the missing days were days without snow. Below each box, I've added the existing target to beat for the full 12-month calendar year. Akron/Canton [3rd least of 74 years] Record least calendar year snowfall is 17.5" in 1998. Mansfield [2nd least of 79 years] Record least calendar year snowfall is 19.7" in 2006. Youngstown [Least of 78 years] Record least calendar year snowfall is 26.8" in 1939. Toledo [9th least of 84 years] Record least calendar year snowfall is 6.6" in 2006. Cleveland [12th least of 131 years; 4th least of 84 years at airport observation site] Record least calendar year snowfall is 13.0" in 1931. At the airport, the record least snowfall is 21.7" in 1998.

Well, I wouldn't call myself elite or intelligentia [sic], I just use it to mean "one who denies, e.g. Holocaust denier."

It just seems in a lot of cases these claims are made in bad faith. Our current equipment and measuring ability is better than ever. You can even quantify some of the impacts of moving the station from the City of Worcester to ORH, some 400-500 feet increase in elevation. During the period from 1949-1961, the Worcester City station ran 2.7F warmer for maximum temperatures, 0.6F cooler for minimum temperatures, and averaged 1.0F warmer for the daily mean. That's a big difference, especially for daytime maximum, so I would expect a disproportionate amount of record maxima to belong to the city station. Fortunately, the elevation change was somewhat offset by the more favorable radiational cooling at the city station [it looks like the station may have been sited in a neighborhood, not downtown]. This is not even looking into whether there were time of observation biases in the earlier city record. From the mid/late 1980s to the mid/late 1990s, the first-order (airport) sites utilized the HO-83 hygrothermometer. There's a plethora of academic research showing these read as much as 2C too warm, particularly on sunny days with minimal winds. I know this, ironically, because deniers made a big deal about it in the 2000s saying the recent warming was inflated - even though this was only affecting a small subset of climate stations. Of course, now they point to years like 1988 and 1995 to say it's been hot before. There were a lot of heat records set in this period in the U.S., particularly at these first order sites. Most likely, some of those heat records were inflated, but we're not allowed to say that.

Can you show one of these observations from ORH? I'll bet it's something like: -ZR 01/M04. Freezing rain is certainly possible above freezing if there's a big dewpoint depression and/or a rapid increase in air temperature such that the surface is still below freezing. I agree 2" of snow in an hour at 34F is impossible with a properly sited station, and that snow of that intensity would surely drop the air temperature to freezing or below.

Look, I don't want to stir up any trouble. I know you and @CoastalWxare prolific posters with lots of credibility, but MADIS almost also shows a big warm bias. And I'm always skeptical of people making a big deal out of a station running warm. You never see people call out stations running cool - Albany was running 2-3 degrees too low for awhile, it took a former NWS met calling it out before they would address it. It's always so warm these days, that even a minor warm bias automatically gets detected and amplified since records start being shattered.

It may have a small warm bias, but MADIS is not reliable. It literally always says most ASOS stations are way too warm. It's certainly not 2 degrees off the surrounding stations - Boston is only 0.7F from a record, Concord 0.5F, and Hartford 0.3F. None of the surrounding first-order sites are any where near 2 degrees cooler than ORH, on a departure basis.

I see my "alter ego" is lurking.

Bunch of snowflakes in this thread. Can't even take someone sharing the fact that it's been one of the hottest and least snowiest years on record without flying off the handle. Funny, I bet some of these are "free speech" people.

Got to love it! I post topical climate data for central Pennsylvania, don't even mention climate change, and am accused of trolling. @PSUWhiteout70comes here posting completely off-topic conspiracy theories, and gets several likes.

Looking like another historic year weatherwise for New England, depending on how December shapes up. Here is a collection of cities, with 2023 ranging from warmest on record at ORH to 7th warmest on record at CON. Some of the records for ORH and CON in the early years are not reliable - in the case of ORH, this is due mainly to elevation and site location changes. Unclear what the problem is at CON, but the 1870s are way out of whack with other data [excluding those records, 2023 is 5th warmest since 1880]. Burlington, VT Caribou, ME Mount Washington, NH Boston, MA Worcester, MA Note: Due to substantial elevation change, early data is not directly comparable to present. Concord, NH Hartford, CT

With a little over one month left in the year, 2023 continues to be in the running for one of the warmest years on record at several cities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Notably, it is easily the warmest on record at DuBois and Bradford, in the higher elevations of the north. Williamsport, Harrisburg, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area are all in second place to date - in the latter two cities, the records belong to the recent year of 2020; however, the record at Williamsport dates back more than 100 years (1921). While 1921 is the warmest through November 27, the record warmest year at IPT actually occurred much more recently in 2012 (as a warm December enabled that year to overtake the early 20th century challenger). Regardless, if we continue to run warmer than normal in December, this is shaping up to be an historic year weather-wise in the Commonwealth. I am looking forward, with much excitement, to sharing the final numbers in early January. Williamsport (2nd warmest) DuBois (warmest on record - a full 1.3F above #2!!!) Harrisburg - Middleton (2nd place) Bradford (warmest on record - by nearly a full degree!) Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Avoca, PA (2nd warmest)

I just don't know what is so controversial, or factually wrong. Like I said, I was just taking a quick look at snowfall numbers for Pennsylvania cities, as we head into winter. Since I don't live near Harrisburg, I didn't know snowfall has been that low there. While 2019-2020 & 2022-2023 were paltry everywhere in the Commonwealth, most places in the Commonwealth have not had their top two least snowiest winters in that stretch.

I was talking about the sock puppet theory. Wonder if he thinks ChescoWx is another sock puppet of mine? Lol.

Same here. The bulk of my posts are simply sharing unadjusted climate stats from first order sites that I find interesting. I never even bring up climate change, except in the climate change section.

Nobody thinks that, except for you.

With all due respect, how is posting year to date climate statistics for the capital against the rules?

Yes, I posted the annual snowfall to date in the previous post. 2023 is #1 for lowest through 11-27.

In any event, here is where we stand on the year in the capital city. This has been an incredibly noteworthy year weatherwise. Second warmest to date Least snowiest calendar year to date Just a shame that records aren't taken at Capital City Airport anymore, or we'd really be blowing all other years out of the water. They do this all the time. Move the station to a cooler location to hide the incline. Change the equipment or time of observations to hide the incline. It's just not working anymore.

I'm going to have to disagree. I don't think anyone here knew it was that bad in 2019-2020 & 2022-2023 in Harrisburg. I certainly didn't, as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.

I was looking at snowfall records across the Commonwealth, and I found this quite interesting. Harrisburg had never had less than 9" of snow in a full winter until recently, but has now had 2 of the past 4 winters with less than 6 inches of snow. By percent that is pretty substantial, some 35-40% less than the prior record in those winters.

Picked up a light dusting of snow pellets here.

11.6 inches of snow so far in the 2023 calendar year. The least snowiest calendar year on record is 1998, with 10.9 inches. The current second least snowiest calendar year is 1889, with 15.8 inches. However, that value is probably not really comparable to recent snowfall records due to changes in location and station exposure, as well as changes in snowfall measurement procedures.

I guess only one person can possibly wonder how winter will be affected by a 2C warmer globe this year? Even if only temporary, that’s pretty significant since all the discourse has always made it seem that’s some far off threshold.

You would think it would be pretty difficult to get any sustained wintry weather at our latitude in a +2C world. Might have to hold out hope for a few “thread the needle” type events that melt away quickly.

The sky is literally falling though. https://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-change-upper-atmosphere-cooling#:~:text=it to contract.-,The sky is falling — literally.,at Charles University in Prague.