Winter 2025/26 Banter Thread

[michsnowfreak]

2 hours ago, McHenrySnow said:

And ftr, I do realize my data set is very limited, so not making huge extrapolations off of 5 years, just generally commenting on what has happened thus far. 

What goes up must come down. The region saw a slew of unusually snowy winters in the 2000s-10s. Many areas of the Great Lakes and northeast saw their snowiest decade on record in the 2010s. It was an unrealistic pace that came down.

Avg annual snowfall at Detroit is around 43". The past 10 years averaged 39.1" but the previous 10 years 53.3".

Avg annual snowfall at Chicago is around 37". The past 10 years averaged 31.9" but the previous 10 years 46.9".

[IWXwx]

10 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

We're not the only ones dealing with long term drought

 

A couple of brush fires and a stiff onshore wind would burn down half of the state.

[cyclone77]

19 minutes ago, IWXwx said:

A couple of brush fires and a stiff onshore wind would burn down half of the state.

Hopefully all this smoke goes north into Canada as payback for all the past summers of smoky skies lol.

[roardog]

52 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

Hopefully all this smoke goes north into Canada as payback for all the past summers of smoky skies lol.

Apparently it doesn’t matter if Canada has a dry, wet, cold or warm winter, as soon as there’s a warm day in the spring the entire country spontaneously combusts every year. 

[McHenrySnow]

19 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

you forgot this one...

Yeah, I didn't mention it because the city really got screwed on that one. It was the rare recent storm where the NW won out. That was a heartbreak for the city - models literally changed drastically as the storm was ongoing and it cut further north.

[McHenrySnow]

19 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

The 2015 storm I'm talking about was in November, before Thanksgiving. The one you highlight was the last widespread "big dog" across all of Chicagoland. The 2018 fun was a couple separate storms as I recall. I just know I was miserable in Mexico and my husband getting pissed at me over it b/c I kept looking at models and radars and complaining I wasn't there. Sad, I know.

[frostfern]

22 hours ago, A-L-E-K said:

still there 

Keep the palm trees covered.

[Cary67]

10 minutes ago, frostfern said:

Keep the palm trees covered.

Dreams of skating on a green Chicago River

[cmillzz]

On 3/4/2026 at 12:29 PM, A-L-E-K said:

still there 

Hour 300, why are we even doing this... but anyway

[A-L-E-K]

east coast pattern^

btw u r in the banter thread

[cmillzz]

1 hour ago, A-L-E-K said:

east coast pattern^

btw u r in the banter thread

Yeah, forgot about that. We should be posting in the spring banter thread though imo