(WSYR-TV, Syracuse) Along with the warmth this winter
(be sure to check out Jim Teske's blogs on this) probably the one thing that is the most remarkable is the lack of snow. Many think it's the least snow we've ever had so late in the season. Surprisingly, it's not.
The graphic accompanying this story lays it all out on the line pretty clearly. In blue, we have the top 5 least snowy winters in Syracuse. Our list disagrees with other reports out there, because we only look at the years that snowfall measurements have been taken at Hancock Airport, 1949. Prior to that year, snowfall was measured in downtown Syracuse, and for the sake of our comparisons, we didn't feel downtown measurements were representative of what we were trying to look at.
What stands out from the "blue" bars is that every decade is represented going back to the 1950s, with the exception of the 1970s. Put simply, we're due for a "lame" winter once a decade.
The pink bars represent the snowfall for each of those years (including this year) through January 25th. You can see, 2001-2002 and 1994-1995 produced less snow to this date, than we've seen this year.
The top 3 least snowy winters saw the majority of their seasonal snow fall through the second half of the winter. We don't see any significant snow events through early February, but statistically, the highest chance for us to see an east coast snow storm develop occurs in the months of February and March. While it can't be ruled out that a significant snow storm could develop, or that we could see a few days of bone-chilling cold, a complete reversal of winter to a prolonged cold and snowy pattern does not appear to be in the cards.
