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Most winters we tend to get one good event with lying snow that lasts a while.. to be fair the winters before the last one were colder than usual and not normal, a typical winter is like one from the early 00s
Wasn't winters in the early 90s cold that's what I heard.
I remember winters pre 2009 they seemed more balanced the coldsnaps were not so cold, snow not too much etc
I think the cold winters are behind us now though.
Now that the summer solstice has passed and the nights are getting longer, all thoughts will inevitably turn towards winter. Questions will be raised such as, will 2013/14 be repeated? Or will 2014/15 be cold and snowy. Well let’s first look at why the 2013/14 winter turned out so persistently wet and windy. There have been strong suggestions that persistent Indonesian rainfall had a huge impact on the Pacific jet stream, causing the jet to buckle and allowing a dominant high pressure system to reside just off the Northwest coast of America and Canada. This in turn started to drag very cold air from the Artic, filtering down the eastern side of the USA and plunging these areas in to a very cold and bitter winter. Due to the eastern USA being unusually bitter, the cold temperatures caused a huge temperature contrast between the warm flow of the Atlantic Ocean (via the Gulf Stream) and the cold air mass filtering out of the USA. This contrast was partly responsible, along with an unusually strong QBO (Quasi-biennial oscillation) for a strengthening of the jet stream, which in turn strengthened the low pressures systems that affected the United Kingdom. Another factor to consider is solar activity, although the science regarding this factor has only recently come to fruition, it’s possible that increased solar activity during the winter of 2013/14, probably due to the suns magnetic polar flip, was also partly responsible for the strengthening of the Atlantic jet. So a lot of factors it seems had to come together at just the right time to produce such a consistent flow of Atlantic depressions. So will this be pattern be repeated in 2014/15? Well we don’t think so as it stands, partly because we have a devolving El Nino, which won’t guarantee a cold winter, but our winters during an El Niño tend to be drier than average. The last El Nino winter we experienced was 2009/10, which turned out to be a very cold winter, so the chances are that a repeat of 2013/14 will be very unlikely. There are some signals that this winter will possibly have some colder periods, however, this is not a given with this time frame but as ever we will keep you updated. Watch this space!!!! - See more at:
To balance everything out I think the upcoming winter will be average and dry leaning towards SLIGHTLY colder than average. As it says above a repeat of last winter isn't likely considering it was so mild and wet. I've seen some articles saying autumn will be a mild one though.
I'd have to look it up but I'm sure that we have been through to January without a frost before, or close to it. Our average low in October is still 8C and the cold nights don't really come until later in the month/start of November
I happened to be out looking at houses here recently and have noticed that the leaves are already changing/falling. Its very peculiar that this is happening this early in the year. Sadly I don't remember 09-10 very well I think it was a rather normal year for snow -- but research shows it was cooler than usual (no records) though. Was hoping it would be like a 10-11 year with a blizzard. Nothing beats sitting in front of the fireplace and sipping hot cocoa.
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