>Well, with all the talk these days about all that snowcover and remarkable snowstorms which have obliterated snow season records and even single snowstorm totals, how cold has it been?

Well, in all honestly, the the cold temperature department, I have been somewhat unimpressed by actual numbers but when you compile the winter for sustained cold, well I guess it hasn’t been particularly mild for such places as the Midwest and Plains, even the Great Lakes.

As for New England and down into the Northeast it has been cold but in terms of severe cold, well it hasn’t been that cold… When you gage this winter up against snow and cold, it’s been far far more impressive for snow obviously, but, as for extreme cold, it has been a fairly typical and perhaps easy winter for much of the country. I say that purely for actual extreme numbers.

For example, I am going to show you a selection of cities and compare their coldest high and low for this January verses last January…

2010/2009

Chicago, Ill 11/-1 -6/-18

Minneapolis, Minn 1/-15 -6/-22

Columbus, Oh 17/4 4/-11

AccuWeather Headquarters, Penn 16/1 7/-4

Philadelphia, Penn 21/14 18/6

New York, NY 20/13 16/6

Boston, Mass 21/6 17/8

Baltimore, MD 21/8 18/2

Washington DC 23/16 18/8

Interestingly, last winter, though was actually colder than what we’ve seen this winter, did not see anything even close to what we’ve seen this year across the Mid-Atlantic, but snows were much worse LAST YEAR across New England and indeed the Midwest. The past 3-4 winters have been snow droughts for the midatlantic and even many folks probably thought winter snows were a thing of the past for Mid-Atlantic residents… It seemed storms over recent winters only wanted to rain on the big cities, you couldnt buy a flake, well this year, you would probably pay to see the end to this snow year.

So, in terms of snow, it has been a tough winter, and yes, we’ve seem a cold winter in the sense of sustained chill but we certainly haven’t seem brutal cold like we can see.

Thanks for reading.
-Mark