Here we are in mid December and instead of snow piling up outside as it did last year, we’re actually losing snow thanks to some incredibly mild weather and some rain and drizzle in the area.  Our once snowy landscape is now turning brown and muddy and it looks like this warm spell won’t end until all of that snow is gone.  While the official forecast from the Climate Prediction Center was calling for another La Nina winter across the country similar to the one we had last year, we’ve only seen glimpses of the intense cold that we should expect and very little of the snow we’d normally receive.  At this point last year, we had measured 25.9 inches of snow and this year, we’ve received only 4.1 inches in December.  we do have to remember two things, of course, and that is La Nina patterns can be somewhat variable, meaning some La Nina winters are snowier than others, and there are varying degrees of La Nina type weather.  The other point to make here is it’s still very early in the game and we have three months or so of winter ahead and things will likely get pretty wintry again at some point.

We've received only a fraction of the snowfall so far this December compared to last December when we set the record for the snowiest month in Rochester history.

If you’re concerned about having a white Christmas, we don’t have any promising signs of accumulating snow on the horizon this week, but there may be a couple of small chances next week, so stay tuned.  Statistically, we have a “White Christmas” about 75 to 80 percent of the time and we’ve had eleven of them in the last twelve years, so I wonder if we’re due for a clunker.  In the meantime, we’re going to closely scan the horizon and keep an eye out for snow in the forecast as we approach the holidays which are rapidly approaching.

Posted under winter weather