michsnowfreak

I like your new pic lol

Admittedly I'm not always the best at remembering what type of event any given snowfall was. I remember the amount, but not always what it was. But this is actually an interesting topic because I too have noticed we don't seem to get as many clippers as we used to in the 1990s, but we get a lot more snow now than we did back then too. Back then they were our bread-and-butter and now they just make occasional appearances. And cyclone mentioned icing. Back in the 1940s and 1950s we had way more ice storms amd glazing events than we do now, but way less snow.

You prompted me to look it up for Detroit as this is a stat I've never looked up lol. As you can see, plenty of 0.1s since the records began. Of course every season also has dozens of traces. 1880s- 70 1890s- 62 1900s- 74 1910s- 74 1920s- 76 1930s- 73 1940s- 60 1950s- 75 1960s- 83 1970s- 81 1980s- 64 1990s- 43 2000s- 68 2010s- 72

It's ironic that you say, "people use stats in misleading ways all the time, whether intentionally or not" when one of your biggest soap boxes is to use the period of record that is BY FAR Chicago's coldest of the entire climate record as the baseline (and you often make that even colder than numbers indicate). But I just want to know where you are getting this idea that dustings didn't count in the old days lol. I mean there's literally zero proof of that, not to mention as myself and hoosier already pointed out, since records started there have been 0.1" snowfalls. Actually, some of the oldest weatherbooks are fascinating to look at if you ever take a trip to the NWS. They would put detailed narratives of the weather.

I disagree on that as there are plenty of 0.1" and 0.2" snowfall measurements since the beginning of record. Now, you can argue that any given event may have only dropped a trace in the city but 0.2" where ORD is. (We see that all the time in Southeast Michigan with lake effect remnants, differences over short distances). But if the observation site has 0.1" of snow they recorded it at 0.1" of snow

Not to derail the thread but back-to-back flips are actually fairly common for any given area. But I can't think of anything more dramatic than the flip Detroit saw many many years ago: 1880-81: 93.6" 1881-82: 13.2" 1880-81 still stands as the 13th coldest Winter on record and for over a century stood as the snowiest Winter on record until 94.9" in 2013-14 dethroned it. That is the Winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "the long Winter" was about and you see those pictures of trains in the Dakota's buried in snow. 1881-82: This Winter stands as the 2nd least snowy on record, only 0.3" off #1. But more impressively its by far the warmest Winter on record. The 2nd warmest winter is 1.2° colder. Usually rankings in top 20 lists for long term climate sites are separated by tenths of degrees if that.

Looking in all the data, it really does show how some of your storm tracks are just favoring a certain area. Obviously Minneapolis should beat Detroit more often than not seeing as though they average about 7 more inches, And Detroit recently had a good stretch where they beat Minneapolis 9 out of 15 times from 2002-03 to 2016-17. But what's really surprising is there's quite a few years where one city beats the other by 20+ inches.

Hoosier, it's probably quicker for you to figure this out lol, what is the greatest difference in a snow season between Chicago and Minneapolis each way? For Detroit... 1982-83: MSP 74.4", DTW 20.0" 2004-05: MSP 25.5", DTW 63.8"

We've had some good snow storms the past few years, but of course most of them start with model porn before hitting reality. Honestly I'd much rather get a bowling ball system than any kind of cutting storm

Not sure what kind of phone camera you have, but whenever that happens that's a great time to get pictures of snowflakes. I have the Samsung Galaxy S21 and it's awesome for that

I never said Winter's gone as advertised. A mild, gross January pattern was seen way back when we were shivering on Christmas. It became clear there was no avoiding it. I'm just glad the light at the end of the tunnel is finally showing.

Im not trying to polish anything. The mild first half to two thirds of January was well advertised. I mean there's really nothing you can do but wait it out.

I said the cold was coming back before new years? Wow that's news to me

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.