Friday, March 8, 2013

Winter is dead

Stick a fork in it.

Winter 2012-13 is finished.  You might want to remember this column, in case it snows some morning in late March, but I don't see that happening.

The storm system that swept from the Midwest across West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland before going offshore earlier this week was our last chance at a real winter storm. Computer models earlier had pointed to the Carolinas as a possible target, but high pressure over the Northeast wasn't as strong as first thought. That allowed the big storm to stay north of the Charlotte region.

We certainly won't be vaulting straight into 80-degree weather. There is quite a bit of consensus among the computer models and meteorologists that temperatures overall for the next few weeks will be generally in the vicinity of seasonal averages.

Our average high temperature at this time of year is 61 degrees.

It looks as if we'll have a lot of 60s between now and the end of the month -- with a few days in the 70s and a few in the 50s mixed in.

But there is no sign of real cold weather that would allow a passing storm system to drop snow in our region.

For the record, we got 2.7 inches of snow in Charlotte, which fell Feb. 16. A trace of snow fell several other times, and we had the one January encounter with sleet and freezing rain. But we managed to avoid a devastating ice storm again. Our snowfall total was about half the seasonal average for Charlotte.

I suspect statistics will show that temperatures this winter were around average, but it seems as if we had an awful lot of chilly days, especially since mid-January.  I'll look closer at the numbers in the next few days.


9 comments:

HokieTT said...

Hi Steve,

I was looking yesterday at Weather Underground's calendar, and between Feb 1 and March 7 (5 weeks), we had exactly one day where the high temp reached the historical average high for that date (Feb 11, I believe) and zero days where the high temp exceeded it. So yeah, chilly to say the least.

Anonymous said...

I never believe winter is over until my dog starts shedding. She always knows more than us people do, and she is hanging onto her downy undercoat.

Anonymous said...

Say it isn't so Mr. Hype. No more snow flurry hysteria until next Winter.

Anonymous said...

Temperatures OVERALL will GENERALLY be in the VICINITY of SEASONAL averages -- Way to commit there Steve

Snuffy said...

Yes!! While I acknowledge those that love snow, I am one who does not. I am thankful to go another winter season without much snow or ice. Bring on the warm (>65°F) weather!!

Carlos said...

Chili today, and hot tamale!

Anonymous said...

Absence of snow does not mean absence of winter. Winter ends on March 20, regardless of snow, or hail, or boiling temperatures.

It would be fun to experience a chilly blackberry winter in April to spoil the hyped "celebration" of the early death of winter, so pronounced by the experts.

Gipper1965 said...

Oops.

Anonymous said...

"Dead" is it?? Oh yeah? See how it has resurrected in your contradiction of 3/19/13 above.