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A look at some 2011 weather numbers...(12-29-11)

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(MGN Online)

Reported by: Jim Teske

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Published: 12/29/2011 5:05 pm

Updated: 12/29/2011 5:19 pm

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 8th place. When I started looking at weather numbers for 2011 I kept thinking we were at the Fair and we were handing out ribbons.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the fact we were close to the record for the least snowiest December on record. Unfortunately, the 3.5” of snow on Wednesday and at least 1 inch since midnight last night has pushed us to 6.1” for the month. The record is 5.9” set December 1994 and will stay that way for another year. We are holding in second place for now; we’ll see what Thursday night’s snow amounts to and whether that pushes us into third place (7.1” in 1965)

There are also some yearly numbers that are going to be just as, if not more, memorable. It is going to be one of the warmest and wettest years on record in Syracuse. First off, given what we are projecting in terms of temperatures over the next 2 days, we are likely to end up the 3rd warmest year on record. Here is how we think it is going to stack up.

Year	Ave. Temp
1931	51.4 F
1998	50.8 F
2011	50.7 F*
1949	50.6 F
1953	50.4 F
1938	50.4 F
2002	50.4 F
1921	50.4 F

*2011 projection based on forecasted temperatures for Friday & Saturday

That placement on the list was built almost fully on a very warm last half of the year. January, February and March all had below normal temperatures but from April on our monthly temperatures were above normal with a number of those months ending up as some of the warmest on record.

Month	Mean Temp	Rank
May	62.8 F	3rd Warmest
July	75.8 F	2nd Warmest
September	66.0 F	4th Warmest
November	46.8 F	2nd Warmest
December	35.8 F*	3rd Warmest

*December projection based on forecasted temperatures for Friday & Saturday

Another sign of the consistent warmth is how many individual days have been above normal. I looked at this about a month ago and found a large majority of days this fall (74%) had high temperatures at or above normal. I extended this back to the beginning of July and that percentage jumps all the way to 79% (or 147 out of 185 days). That means that for the last half of the year, almost 8 out of every 10 days ended up with temperatures at or above normal. That is just astounding! As your length of time expands your should be getting closer to a 50/50 split.

In terms of precipitation, it looks like we will end up as the 8th wettest year on record. It was also the 2nd wettest in the last 35 years.

Year	Rain
1976	58.17”
1972	55.41”
1973	52.58”
1975	51.90”
1974	50.23”
1990	49.47”
1922	48.17”
2011	47.97”*
2006	47.21”
1937	45.13”

*Through December 28th

These numbers take into account rain and melted snow. When you look at some of the other rain totals in the Northeast they are even more impressive. Just an hour down I-81 in Binghamton they had 20 inches of rain more than us here in Syracuse and easily broke their record for wettest year on record. The exceeded the old record by about 40% and that record went by the wayside way back in September. It took a little longer, but on Tuesday Burlington set their record wettest year. New York City ended up with their 2nd wettest year at Central Park with a total rainfall for the year of more than 70 inches.

Even though part of the snow season started in 2010, the winter of 2010-11 came in 179.0” which made it the 4th snowiest on record.

Winter	Snowfall
1992-93	192.1”
2000-01	191.9”
2003-04	181.3”
2010-11	179.0”

It just seems ironic that we would finish this year (and start the winter of 2011-12) with one of the least snowy Decembers on record.

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