jbcmh81

Looking more like 1979-80 than 1984-85. December 1979 was warm and snowless, with January/February much colder, but the largest snow event was 3". Total snowfall for the season was 16.7" in Columbus. This season is now a full inch behind that year, and more than 9" below last year. Unless there's a drastic change in the pattern or a very lucky break, this could end up being one of the least snowy December-Januarys ever. Of all the historically snowless winters of the past 25 years, just about all of them had more snow at this point. 1996-1997, 1997-1998, 2001-2002, 2005-2006, 2016-2017, 2019-2020. 2011-2012 came in very close, just 0.2" behind. So yeah, it's hard to see things turning around based on that.

Keep this handy just in case.

Oh look, a 70/71 rider. Haven't seen that before.

Here's 84-85 December High Low Mean Dept Precip Snowfall Depth 1 46 34 40 2 Trace 0 0 2 49 29 39 1 Trace 0 0 3 48 26 37 0 0.13 0 0 4 32 19 26 -12 0 0 0 5 30 15 23 -14 0.28 5.7 0 6 26 10 18 -18 0.1 1.6 6 7 20 6 13 -23 Trace Trace 6 8 38 19 29 -7 0 0 5 9 44 17 31 -5 0 0 3 10 44 38 41 6 0.38 0 1 11 41 37 39 5 Trace 0 Trace 12 59 38 49 14 0.08 0 0 13 59 41 50 16 0.35 0 0 14 63 42 53 19 0.11 0 0 15 55 48 52 18 0 0 0 16 64 48 56 23 0 0 0 17 67 46 57 24 Trace 0 0 18 57 32 45 12 0 0 0 19 47 34 41 8 0.16 0 0 20 40 32 36 4 0 0 0 21 59 36 48 16 0.43 Trace 0 22 55 28 42 10 0 0 0 23 45 22 34 2 0 0 0 24 47 25 36 5 Trace Trace 0 25 26 15 21 -11 Trace Trace 0 26 36 17 27 -4 Trace Trace 0 27 56 35 46 15 0 0 0 28 68 53 61 30 0.03 0 0 29 64 50 57 27 0.46 0 0 30 50 33 42 11 0.28 0 0 31 53 35 44 14 0.05 0 0 Avg 48 31 39.5 6 2.84 7.3 0.7 January High Low Mean Dept Precip Snowfall Depth 1 65 33 49 21 0.09 0 0 2 34 30 32 4 0.01 Trace 0 3 34 26 30 3 0 0 0 4 36 28 32 5 Trace 0 0 5 40 30 35 8 Trace Trace 0 6 34 29 32 5 0 0 0 7 35 31 33 6 0.13 1.4 1 8 32 13 23 -4 0.03 0.4 1 9 21 7 14 -13 0 0 1 10 27 19 23 -4 0.18 4.9 2 11 24 14 19 -7 0.01 0.3 5 12 20 12 16 -10 Trace Trace 5 13 29 13 21 -5 0 0 5 14 30 19 25 -1 0.08 1.6 4 15 20 8 14 -12 0.01 0.3 5 16 22 4 13 -13 0.04 0.5 4 17 32 20 26 0 0.17 1.9 6 18 33 20 27 1 0.2 3.1 6 19 27 -5 11 -15 Trace Trace 9 20 -5 -19 -12 -38 Trace 0.2 8 21 11 -16 -3 -29 0.02 0.6 8 22 21 11 16 -10 0.02 0.7 8 23 28 17 23 -3 Trace Trace 8 24 30 25 28 2 0.06 1 8 25 30 14 22 -4 0.14 3.7 8 26 18 5 12 -14 Trace Trace 10 27 28 12 20 -6 0 0 9 28 27 22 25 -1 Trace Trace 7 29 24 14 19 -7 Trace Trace 6 30 32 10 21 -5 Trace 0.1 5 31 34 25 30 4 0.12 1.2 5 Avg 28.2 15.2 21.7 -4.6 1.31 21.9 4.6 February High Low Mean Dept Precip Snowfall Depth 1 25 11 18 -12 0.04 1 5 2 14 2 8 -22 0.07 2.4 6 3 15 -10 3 -28 0 0 8 4 25 -9 8 -23 0 0 8 5 33 19 26 -5 0.05 0.4 8 6 32 12 22 -9 0.02 0.3 7 7 16 7 12 -20 Trace Trace 7 8 19 1 10 -21 Trace Trace 7 9 24 -7 9 -23 0 0 7 10 31 5 18 -14 0.1 1.3 6 11 44 30 37 5 0.13 Trace 7 12 37 27 32 0 0.42 4.1 5 13 27 18 23 -10 0.2 2.5 11 14 23 14 19 -14 0.03 0.5 11 15 19 8 14 -19 Trace Trace 11 16 32 1 17 -16 0 0 11 17 39 23 31 -2 0 0 10 18 40 14 27 -6 Trace Trace 9 19 37 24 31 -3 Trace Trace 7 20 40 19 30 -4 0 0 6 21 49 25 37 3 0.05 0 5 22 49 42 46 11 0.42 0 2 23 66 46 56 21 Trace 0 Trace 24 62 39 51 16 0.14 0 0 25 40 33 37 1 0 0 0 26 48 35 42 6 0 0 0 27 42 28 35 -1 Trace 0 0 28 46 24 35 -1 0 0 0 Avg 34.8 17.2 26 -6.8 1.67 12.5 5.9

December '84 was very similar. Aside from a fluke storm at the beginning of the month, it was very warm and snowless. After the New Year, it got cold and it was wall to wall winter for the next 7 weeks.

At least the pattern looks slightly more interesting after the first few days of the new year. Maybe it'll be a 1984-1985 situation.

There was never going to be a response that prevented the loss under the previous administration.

That was through 5am, so yeah...

Don't worry, the good folks at the airport made sure to only measure 1", the lowest total in all of Central Ohio- as is tradition.

Regarding the 1883 event, there were reports of 10" depths across the northern Miami Valley in Ohio the day after. Temperatures were at or slightly above freezing for most of it, so when you consider how much probably melted/compacted, some areas probably saw 15"-20" of snow from that. An insane event 10 days outside of June.

Since 1884, Columbus has recorded 31 winters with at least 1 daily 6" snow event. That's about 1 every 4.4 years, so it's not particularly unusual to go 5 years without one. There hasn't been an official once in Columbus since the 2014-15 season, which is now 6 years. The longest the city has ever gone without recording a 6" daily snowfall was 1918-19 to 1946-47, 28 straight years. However, if you expand it out to a 2-day event, which most storms actually are, the data changes somewhat to a much greater frequency. At that standard, you surpass 110 for a frequency about 1 every 2 years. However, there still hasn't been once since 2014-2015 and the longest period without one is 1921-22 to 1946-47, 25 years.

Every winter, there was always that one storm that seemed like it was going to be good until the inevitable crash and burn. After those, I always kind of lost interest in tracking winter storms for the season unless it was actually snowing. This was that storm. If the Thursday storm happens, great, but I'm at the I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it stage of winter. Also, that NAM run barely gives anyone in Ohio anything, despite the look.

Not really. While it was the furthest NW and warmest, even it wasn't nearly warm enough and still showed far more snow for many areas.

The Columbus airport with predictably the lowest total- barely 2" of mostly sleet. Not even going to follow the next storm.

Good thing Buckeye came back for the Big Dog!

Does it? The airport was reporting only 0.5" through 5pm, and that presumably included the first wave. It was definitely sleeting long before 5pm.

Everything came further NW so the warm push aloft was far worse than predicted.

I wonder if Columbus even officially reports an inch from both waves combined. Just an absolute historic bust.

At this point, no one should bother until it starts snowing.

I expected the worst, but I still thought the western 1/3 of the state would at least get decent snow.

Mountain Cams | Mad River Mountain Resort (skimadriver.com) Snowing someplace at least.

Will go down as one of the all time worst. We'll be talking about this for years to come.

Epic bust if that happens.

Yeah, the run to run changes are very minor right now from what I'm seeing. The story is 71 is on the line. That's always the story.

I haven't compared the RGEM, but on the NAM Columbus is slightly better than 6z. Most of Franklin County seems to stay *just* outside of the mix, but then you get that weird dry slot it keeps showing. GFS is a hair SE, but it has a more expansive mix.