It's time to grade Winter 2025-26(now that it's actually over)

[wxmeddler]

B

[Eskimo Joe]

3 hours ago, wxmeddler said:

B

Agreed. We missed the last storm, which prevented many from exceeding climo snowfall. But we had several decent cold waves and the first warning level snowfall for many in several years. 

[Weather Will]

Temps: A: reminded me of a 1970s winter.  Sustained cold kept the snow we had on the ground for a record breaking amount of time.

Snow: B+: only about 16 inches total but since it stayed on the ground a long time I bumped it up.  

Overall grade: A-.

[Bob Chill]

Easy A- grade here

Climo is lower in my hood but over 14" is climo+ and having a 2 week period of complete snowcrete cover is quite rare. 

Accum snow in each month DJFM + plenty of cold temps made it a door to door winter appeal. Again, pretty rare. 

Had snow on snow during the snowcrete stretch and that's always a nice bonus in any winter. 

Only reason I can't go A is I couldn't manage a 4"+ single storm. There's plenty of history down this way with bigger storms in the 6-18" range. Just missed that on the Carolina big storm as areas just 30 miles to my south picked up 6" or more. Had that event produced (I got 2.5"), it would have been an easy A grade. A+ (imho) requires a double digit snow even along with all the other important factors

[Poodleusier]

Going with a D in Frederick.  Only saving grace was the Snowcrete storm and the extended cold afterwards.  Been a very disappointing streak of winters up here.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

OK in all seriousness I'd have to give it a B or B+.  Yeah, we missed out on more snow which was indeed frustrating, but it's hard to top the 2 straight weeks below freezing, deep winter.  And "snowcrete" was pretty cool, 5-6" snow with 2" sleet on top that turned into a solid layer that went nowhere for a long time.  I could literally walk on top of it without pushing into the snow.  And though we missed the big snow for February, I still got 3-4" when it fell at a good clip for awhile in the evening.  Not to mention, the amazing turnaround with 80 degrees one day followed by half an inch or so of snow the next day in early March.

[RIC_WX]

Solid B for me.

Rationale?

Generally below climo snow west of the beltway, despite impressive stretches of cold.  
 

The holiday period was arguably the longest sustained AN period of the entire winter, and while it wasn’t as long or as mild as seasons past, the timing was horrible.  I would happily trade a good holiday period for mild most other times, I travel too much for work and this is the one time of year I am mostly around and not too busy to enjoy what’s happening around me.  A lot of the cold and snow we did receive in early December, January and February was wasted for me, I was simply not around to enjoy it.

This makes 5 winters of having a place at DCL, time speeding up is another peril of middle age (kids, take note, there are many). There have been few big storms during this period, historically speaking even warm, east based ninos are known to produce here and I am looking forward to the potential next winter even if it is much milder.

[Heisy]

A- up here near Philly.

The NC storm was the biggest “what if” for me this year. If that storm had phased in sooner and came up the coast it turns into an almost perfect winter.

[GramaxRefugee]

(Enjoyed reading everyone's grading and explanations)

A-

The criteria, (In chronological order. Not all items are equally weighted):

1. White Christmas: Fail; but significant December snow and BN cold softens this greatly

2. AN snowfall: Success; but not by a whole lot. 

3. at least one MECS: Fail; but with a major snowfall in Jan which was close. Tough call here.

4. Just plain cold: Success. BN for each month of DJF. Don't have a thermometer? Just observe the tidewater and freshwater both. Fast ice for a month +/-.  I have made a crude chart below of DJF Temp Avg at BWI since 1950, and this year was 14th coldest out of the 75 years. Anomaly not listed, but roughly -3f for each month.  Sorted by Average; the usual suspects are on top. (Apologies for my XL skills)

YEAR	JAN	FEB										Previous DEC	DJF AVG
1963	28.7	27.7										30.9	29.1
1977	22.9	36.5										32.6	30.7
1978	29.2	27.3										35.6	30.7
2003	28.3	30.2										34.3	30.9
1961	27.6	37.0										28.4	31.0
1964	33.8	33.2										28.7	31.9
1982	25.5	35.8										34.5	31.9
2015	30.8	25.3										39.9	32.0
1994	27.0	34.0										36.2	32.4
1959	32.0	35.7										29.9	32.5
1962	32.4	32.3										33.4	32.7
1970	27.8	35.4										35.2	32.8
2010	32.7	30.9										34.8	32.8
2026	30.5	33.7		M	M	M	M	M	M	M	M	34.2	32.8
1966	29.8	30.5										38.3	32.9
1968	29.2	32.1										37.3	32.9
1979	33.1	25.5										40.1	32.9
2004	27.6	34.8										36.4	32.9
1986	33.1	32.9										33.7	33.2
2014	27.4	32.9										39.6	33.3
1958	32.4	28.9										39.1	33.5
2011	30.2	38.5										32.4	33.7
1969	31.7	34.9										34.6	33.7
1996	31.7	35.7										33.9	33.8
2001	33.0	38.5										30.0	33.8
1955	32.3	34.4										35.0	33.9
1981	27.9	38.8										35.5	34.1
1956	32.6	38.7										31.3	34.2
1984	28.5	41.7										33.2	34.5
1967	37.4	30.7										35.6	34.6
1988	28.6	35.8										39.8	34.7
1965	30.7	34.9										39.0	34.9
1987	32.4	34.3										38.1	34.9
2009	29.3	37.4										38.5	35.1
1980	33.8	31.4										40.3	35.2
1971	30.0	37.4										38.2	35.2
2025	30.3	37.6										38.6	35.5
1951	36.9	36.5										33.3	35.6
1993	37.9	31.4										38.9	36.1
2005	34.1	36.7										37.5	36.1
1974	37.9	33.8										37.3	36.3
1973	34.6	34.3										40.3	36.4
2018	32.0	41.8										35.5	36.4
1990	42.0	42.2										25.3	36.5
2000	32.5	38.0										39.1	36.5
2007	38.7	29.1										42.4	36.7
1992	34.5	37.1										38.7	36.8
2008	35.4	37.1										37.8	36.8
1989	37.9	36.4										36.3	36.9
2019	33.5	37.8										39.7	37.0
1960	36.0	36.2										39.0	37.1
1983	34.6	34.7										42.0	37.1
2006	41.5	36.1										34.0	37.2
2021	36.7	35.8										39.4	37.3
1976	30.8	44.0										37.2	37.3
1985	29.2	38.7										44.1	37.3
1957	30.3	39.0										43.5	37.6
1954	33.0	40.9										39.0	37.6
1997	32.7	40.9										39.6	37.7
1999	35.1	37.6										41.0	37.9
2013	36.9	35.0										42.7	38.2
1995	39.0	33.1										42.6	38.2
1972	37.6	34.3										43.7	38.5
1952	38.5	39.3										38.3	38.7
1953	39.0	40.0										37.8	38.9
1975	38.5	39.0										40.3	39.3
2022	32.3	40.0										45.5	39.3
2016	31.9	37.4										49.0	39.4
1991	35.5	40.7										42.2	39.5
2002	39.1	39.3										42.1	40.2
1998	40.9	41.7										38.4	40.3
2017	39.0	44.2										38.3	40.5
2020	40.2	42.0										39.9	40.7
2012	38.3	41.6										42.2	40.7
2024	37.6	41.1										43.7	40.8
2023	43.9	44.7										37.5	42.0