michsnowfreak

One more week to muddle through, then it looks like the ensembles have a more active and colder look. This far out that's all you can ask for is signs of change, which there are.

I remember back in the 1990s we were taught that El nino means warm and dry and La Nina means cold and wet however the past few decades enso has been all over the place in terms of sensible weather

This will be a great post to bump Feb 8th.

I would love to visit northern MN someday.

There's plenty of factors that give us decent winters. Just like the ones that give us crappy winters. Things like enso, volcanoes etc are all just a piece of a puzzle.

I personally am a snowcover person so Minneapolis would suit me just fine. But I know a lot of other folks are just about the snowfall and say they don't care as much about snow cover (or so they say during the good times). Buffalo has had 101.6" of snow this season but only 29 days with 1" or more of snow on the ground lol. But I like where I live so I'm staying put and will continue with my annual February trips to northern Michigan. If I where you were i would definitely be checking out the northwoods of Minnesota for a Winter weekend or something. Maybe catch northern lights.

Of course not. There's literally nothing pointing towards that happening. Just depends on my mood if I want to respond to palm trolling

I know your comment was tongue in cheek, but Minneapolis is having an exceptionally snowy season while most everyone else is having an exceptionally low snow season. Obviously Minneapolis is always a better place for snowcover, but in those snow seasons where the lower Great Lakes is getting lots of snow often Minneapolis sits cold and dry getting much of their snow early and late in the season. I remember several dud winters a few years back where Minneapolis was really getting screwed similar to this years bullseyes. In fact, while Minneapolis averages a bit more than Detroit (52.5" to 44.6"), Detroit actually averages more in January and February.

BTW @beavis1729 don't think my correcting your stats and bringing you down to reality means I'm happy with the weather either. It does suck. It was very nice around Christmas here but other than that it sucks. I would suggest hibernating for another week and a half then it looks like a much wintrier pattern may take shape.

Nope. They've had a number of record snowfalls in far Southern climes in recent years. I don't think anyone as far north as Milwaukee or Chicago or Detroit needs to worry about the snowfall average

Good point. Absolutely you can be dissatisfied with Chicago's climate, or any climate for that matter. But if you decide to fudge numbers or exaggerate, be prepared to be corrected lol. I mean Chicago had almost 2 feet of snow on the ground 2 years ago in February. Does that not count as a "good month"? I know Detroit has shaved a few inches off of the December norm as well but weve added several inches to January and February norms so there is a net gain for season average. 1991-2020: 44.6" 1981-2010: 43.0" 1971-2000: 43.0" 1961-1990: 40.8" 1951-1980: 38.1" 1941-1970: 32.4" 1931-1960: 32.4" 1921-1950: 35.7" 1911-1940: 39.2" 1901-1930: 43.3" 1891-1920: 43.5" 1881-1910: 45.1"

For the "it doesn't seem like that much snow" crowd, the measurable snow season in the lower Great Lakes is typically November through April. Occasionally October and May make appearances. Everything that accumulates adds to the season total. This is why I always think it's way early to talk season futility before the halfway point of Winter. It gets brought up every year there's a below average start to the snow season and thus far has never panned out. There's a difference between a slow start/bad pattern and all time futility.

Meaning much colder of a pattern than we are now. Temperatures a little colder than normal during the dead of Winter looks good to me. I don't need -30 windchills like we had a Christmas. Just give me cold and snow.

Looking like a turn towards much colder weather in late January is still on track.

Typical media bs What ill bet that hes doing is taking the current mean temperature and applying it to the final January mean temperature

After the expected mild looks of week 1 and 2, week 3-6 of the weeklies look good for bringing winter back.

I would actually say a warning was warranted for the conditions. I was driving in them and it was quite brutal. Most roads had snow rutted much deeper than that, lots of places were 6 to 8" or more because of blowing from in nearby fields and what not Besides think of all the advisories DTW issues for what should be warnings. At the end of the day it's just the public's warning mechanism and nothing more. Also we really have not had much Winter rain in recent years so I can't really complain from that aspect, but I never ever want winter rain to begin with lol.

I agree. I love snow as much more than anyone. And needless to say this Winter outside of Christmas week has been frustrating so far. Just saying I'm not happy with the current weather pattern is an understatement. Some ranting is definitely acceptable, but I just don't get the delusional concept of what is normal.

40 years ago, this December would be a departure of +0.3°. 80 years ago, this December would be a departure of -1.0°. At no point in Chicago's climate record would this December be +2-3°.

I am not a fan of grading winter until it's done. And this is especially early. But id go D. I mean what more can be said that hasn't been lamented over and over about the bad. The good times however were the November 19 arctic front dropping a quick almost 2" snow with below zero wind chills. Then of course Christmas week. Blizzard conditions Dec 23 with -30 wind chills despite only 2.4" of snow there were some impressive drifts. Then waking up to a surprise 2" blanket Christmas morning. So arguable Christmas day was the most winter wonderland day of the season, snow depth of 4-5" with good drifts.

I see your point too. And I said if any winter is ripe for complaining it's this one. But those aren't "my numbers". Those are the official Chicago numbers. Every place goes thru site changes so it is what it is. So the official Chicago numbers show January today is the same or colder than the first half of the 20th century. Our winters OVERALL have been pretty average since 2015. There have been ups and downs. And CERTAINLY frustrating periods. But Chicago was almost -30° in 2019 and had nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground in 2021. Those are clearly wintrier than is typical.

Amen. Actually Detroit was plagued by the cold with low snowfall trend several times in the 1960s. Things changed in the 1970s obviously with snow. Imagine taking a time machine to 1978 or 1979 and analyzing the winters of the past decade (cold cold cold with a few mild). All the talk would be "WOW look at how much warmer winters used to be. This is unprecedented and alarming". Voila let's call for an ice age. I will never take anything seriously that uses the 1970s as all time baseline or even worse, the favorite "since 1970..".

Chicago Winters have actually slightly cooled over the last 100 years. The cold winters of the 1960s and especially 1970s were such an aberration for the entire climate record for everywhere in the Great Lakes temp-wise, I just do not understand how we use that as baseline rather than the long term. Yes, Chicago winters are warmer than they were in the 1960s or 1970s. And they are colder than they were in the 1920s. Or 1930s. Or 1940s. Or 1950s. Yes, Chicago winters are less snowy than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. But they are snowier than they were in the 1920s. Or 1930s. Or 1940. Or 1950s. And by the way all this talk of warm Januarys. 3 of the past 4 Januaries were colder than normal in the lower Great Lakes

This Winter more than ever is good for a good rant, but I still have to call out wrong data. I have no idea where you are getting those figures because they are incorrect. Below are the 30 year normals for January for Chicago since records began. Feel free to fact check them. The aberration is clearly the cold taint of the 1960s and 1970s rather than today's current normal. I don't know how you can look at these numbers and say otherwise. 1881-1910: 23.5 1891-1920: 24.4 1901-1930: 24.9 1911-1940: 25.7 1921-1950: 26.2 1931-1960: 26.3 1941-1970: 24.3 1951-1980: 22.5 1961-1990: 21.7 1971-2000: 22.2 1981-2010: 23.7 1991-2020: 24.2 And if you're gonna compare Chicago to the mid Atlantic you might as well compare them to Marquette. The difference in climate is so drastic to begin with, but in addition the last 6 years Chicago has averaged 38" of snow (which is right around normal) while Washington DC has averaged 7.8" (which is half of their normal).

Yesterday we had the rare chance to go for the 1ﾟdiurnal swing (33/32) at DTW but temps fell late so the actual day was 33/30. Picked up a slushy 0.1" of snow here, 1st measurable of Jan, 8.1" on the season. DTW picked up 0.2" for 7.7" on the season. The last NOT cloudy or mostly cloudy day was December 4th.