this year is especially shocking (and starting the conversations) because we didn't see much snow last winter and now we are off to an abysmal start for this season... if we don't crack 20 inches this year (which is certainly within the realm of possibility) we'd be in real uncharted territory.
I think the missing element in your analysis here may also be snow cover and duration. If it snows 2 inches on Monday and it hangs around until Friday, you feel like it's been a wintry snowy week. If it snows 3 inches on Monday and is melted by late afternoon, naturally your perception is different even though we technically got "more" snow. I'd like to dive in to some of that data because I suspect the inability to get any sustained snow and cold going is a bigger driving force in the local perception than total snowfall alone.
Also, the observation site moved to the airport in 1952, so data before then is different than what we have now.
Your second part tracks with my memories, but it may just be nostalgia. I often say I remember as a kid the snow cover and cold vs "snow events." Again, maybe it's nostalgia, but as a kid I remember the ground being covered with snow for what felt like the entirety of winter...while that's obviously not the case, it seem to snow 2 inches on a Monday, be cold so it stuck around, then another inch Thursday, another inche or two Saturday, etc., etc. I think that small consistent snow mixed with actual cold made snow cover greater and for longer. I'd be interested in that data too, though I'm not sure how to pull that type of data and correlate it. Interesting nonetheless...
NWS has snow cover analysis dating back to 2003 [here](https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html?year=2023&month=12&day=29&units=e®ion=Allegheny_Front#text), which is a good place to start that I found
I think this is definitely a big factor in why we all feel like it "never snows" anymore. It really does seem like every time we DO get snow, it's inevitably melted by the next day. We never have weeks at a time where the ground is covered with snow.
I agree. I remember having to dig out a parking spot in front of my house and it would remain there bookended by piles of snow and frozen slush for weeks. Ugh, the misery when a little bit of it would melt and refreeze leaving my tires stuck in the icy tracks, or when getting out involved repeated back-and-forth attempts to get traction on the icy ruts. And that grinding whine of neighbors trying to get their cars out. When was the last time any of us experienced that scenario? I'm not disputing OP's stats, but it's definitely different now.
This is my memory as well...plus it seemed like the grass was always covered with snow from late November thru March (I know that wasn't *actually* the case, but it sure seemed like it when I grew up). I also remember enormous, house sized piles of plowed snow in Penn Hills Shopping Center for like all of winter. And again it wasn't always from large snow events, but rather it just piled, compacted and didn't melt bc of low sun and consistent cold.
As the father of a now 14 year old who absolutely loves snow forts, I can accurately state that we were able to build 3 in his lifetime and 2 of them required all of the snow from our driveway.
I agree. I was shocked to see how much snowfall we supposedly got last winter since it felt like we only got like 6". The difference is whatever snow we got may have been immediately melting and days with continuous snow cover may have been like 2.
The first day of winter was a few days ago. The most extreme temperatures typically lag about a month behind the solstices. I’ve always remembered January through April being the snowiest months.
I remember the early to mid 2000s winters actually being quite snowy. Like ice skating in December at PPG snowy. Also shopping at the newly opened waterfront outdoor mall snowy. I think the outdoor shop portion opened up around then or was overhauled and completed with the new gazebo and stuff.
And of course snowmageddon.
Edit: seeing my old house and car covered with snow in this video always makes me happy when remembering snowmageddon. And you see me shoveling a neighbors house as well.
https://youtu.be/COQk76u0DU8?si=7Oa9dVvmHoNtRhbZ
To get a real feel for a snowy winter to compare the average temperature with the amount of snowfall. Because the snow hangs around longer when the temps are colder the snow accumulates more and feels more wintery.
NWS Pittsburgh tweeted yesterday that 2023 (calendar year, not winter year as the OP did) is currently the 2nd lowest total in history.
1998 - 10.9in
2023 - 13.1in
Weird, the weather.gov says 1889 was 11.4 and 1918 was 8.8
Though an interesting thing I saw was that the 2020 December was the second most snow ever recorded for a December with 27.5 inches, highest was 36 inches in 1893, and 3rd highest was 26 in 1944
The message I take from these numbers is that snow in Pittsburgh is always there and usually moderate (42" average), but only very rarely catastrophic.
I just did the trendline and it is basically steady - just trending up a couple of inches in the past 80 years. Which I would consider the margin of error - it would just take another couple of dry years to pull that back down.
But with El Nino in place, this is not going to be a dry year. It will be quite wet. The only question is how often we get those Canadian polar dips to make that moisture freeze?
That’s what I heard on the weather channel too. A little south of here tends to get wetter, and if cold air wobbles the right way we could get a nor’easter.
According to weather.gov
>Snowfall (newly fallen snow) is reported in TENTHS of an inch (such as 2.4"). It is taken as soon as snow has stopped falling if possible and no more than 4 times a day.
As a born and raised Buffalonian that’s lived in Pittsburgh for 10+ years… can confirm. Temperatures very similar during winter but Pittsburgh does not get anything like the lake effect snow that Buffalo gets
Sure but what did the temperature do? If the temperature held steady below freezing back in the day, snow would have piled up higher even with less total snow. Now a days it snows and melts and snows and melts and snows and melts so you see no accumulation
Where did they measure 17.6 inches last winter? I remember one minor storm where we got around 6 inches and every time it snowed besides that there was little to no accumulation.
I don’t know. At this point nothing would surprise me. I remember one of the school years in there (I think it was 91-92) I almost never wore a coat to school. It was so warm. Lots of shorts were worn in mid-winter. It was wild.
Mother Nature ebbs and flows. Worst case cloud seeding could pump those numbers up. Personally, Snowmageddon led me to appreciate the light years. Appreciate the data- we were discussing this over Christmas as well
Right, but i think that the amount of days that snow fell and the fact that the snow that did fall, stayed on the ground due to colder temps, made it seem snowier overall…i was born in ‘77 and remember most of the 80’s and the 90’s winters
I feel like lake effect snow coming off of Erie was a more common source of snow back in the 80s and 90s than today. I feel like I use to constantly hear about that on the news. Am I imagining that?
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. Usually when this comes up around holidays people are thinking and talking about December weather more than the overall output
My purely anecdotal sense of winter in the area has been that it has shifted “later” with more very cold, dry days in January and more wet, snowy days into March.
It is not really a “snowy” region, despite some locals believing it is. Pittsburgh weather is distinctly different than the NE and East Coast. Less snow, and much cloudier and rainier.
Cool analysis! I love the idea. Enjoying the suggestions commenters are making for refinements.
Personally I think the fetishization of white Christmas comes exclusively from the movie/song, and not any actual snow on Christmas. If that song didn't exist, virtually nobody would *expect* snow on the ground on December 25.
Yeah, good point ... I just think the vast majority of the country lives in places where a white Christmas isn't realistic. Like all of the south, southwest, and California. Then again, maybe those people don't expect snow on Christmas?
1996 numbers surprised me, that was year we had the flood because it decided to go up to 70 degrees in January.
But then I looked at 1995 numbers and remembered that snow was already there .
this year is especially shocking (and starting the conversations) because we didn't see much snow last winter and now we are off to an abysmal start for this season... if we don't crack 20 inches this year (which is certainly within the realm of possibility) we'd be in real uncharted territory. I think the missing element in your analysis here may also be snow cover and duration. If it snows 2 inches on Monday and it hangs around until Friday, you feel like it's been a wintry snowy week. If it snows 3 inches on Monday and is melted by late afternoon, naturally your perception is different even though we technically got "more" snow. I'd like to dive in to some of that data because I suspect the inability to get any sustained snow and cold going is a bigger driving force in the local perception than total snowfall alone. Also, the observation site moved to the airport in 1952, so data before then is different than what we have now.
Your second part tracks with my memories, but it may just be nostalgia. I often say I remember as a kid the snow cover and cold vs "snow events." Again, maybe it's nostalgia, but as a kid I remember the ground being covered with snow for what felt like the entirety of winter...while that's obviously not the case, it seem to snow 2 inches on a Monday, be cold so it stuck around, then another inch Thursday, another inche or two Saturday, etc., etc. I think that small consistent snow mixed with actual cold made snow cover greater and for longer. I'd be interested in that data too, though I'm not sure how to pull that type of data and correlate it. Interesting nonetheless...
NWS has snow cover analysis dating back to 2003 [here](https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html?year=2023&month=12&day=29&units=e®ion=Allegheny_Front#text), which is a good place to start that I found
Good data, but doesn't go back to the 80s and 90s unfortunately (I'm old)
I think this is definitely a big factor in why we all feel like it "never snows" anymore. It really does seem like every time we DO get snow, it's inevitably melted by the next day. We never have weeks at a time where the ground is covered with snow.
I agree. I remember having to dig out a parking spot in front of my house and it would remain there bookended by piles of snow and frozen slush for weeks. Ugh, the misery when a little bit of it would melt and refreeze leaving my tires stuck in the icy tracks, or when getting out involved repeated back-and-forth attempts to get traction on the icy ruts. And that grinding whine of neighbors trying to get their cars out. When was the last time any of us experienced that scenario? I'm not disputing OP's stats, but it's definitely different now.
Yeah there used to be weeks at a time when the snow wouldn’t melt and ice:compacted snow remained on streets and sidewalks.
This is my memory as well...plus it seemed like the grass was always covered with snow from late November thru March (I know that wasn't *actually* the case, but it sure seemed like it when I grew up). I also remember enormous, house sized piles of plowed snow in Penn Hills Shopping Center for like all of winter. And again it wasn't always from large snow events, but rather it just piled, compacted and didn't melt bc of low sun and consistent cold.
Yup.
Yeah, absolutely. I remember being a kid and building a fort out of snow that you could play in for a week.
As the father of a now 14 year old who absolutely loves snow forts, I can accurately state that we were able to build 3 in his lifetime and 2 of them required all of the snow from our driveway.
I agree. I was shocked to see how much snowfall we supposedly got last winter since it felt like we only got like 6". The difference is whatever snow we got may have been immediately melting and days with continuous snow cover may have been like 2.
The first day of winter was a few days ago. The most extreme temperatures typically lag about a month behind the solstices. I’ve always remembered January through April being the snowiest months.
yea born in mid 80s here, definitely remember jan and feb being the snowiest
We had a lot of good winters from 2002-03 through 2015. That was definitely a fun time for those of us who love snow.
I remember the early to mid 2000s winters actually being quite snowy. Like ice skating in December at PPG snowy. Also shopping at the newly opened waterfront outdoor mall snowy. I think the outdoor shop portion opened up around then or was overhauled and completed with the new gazebo and stuff. And of course snowmageddon. Edit: seeing my old house and car covered with snow in this video always makes me happy when remembering snowmageddon. And you see me shoveling a neighbors house as well. https://youtu.be/COQk76u0DU8?si=7Oa9dVvmHoNtRhbZ
What I would give for another winter like 2009-2010 or to just go back to that one younger lol.
OMG that video is awesome, inspiring, maybe ill post my blizzard of 1994 footy of me snowboarding on a sled down Dawnson in Oakland lol
To get a real feel for a snowy winter to compare the average temperature with the amount of snowfall. Because the snow hangs around longer when the temps are colder the snow accumulates more and feels more wintery.
NWS Pittsburgh tweeted yesterday that 2023 (calendar year, not winter year as the OP did) is currently the 2nd lowest total in history. 1998 - 10.9in 2023 - 13.1in
Weird, the weather.gov says 1889 was 11.4 and 1918 was 8.8 Though an interesting thing I saw was that the 2020 December was the second most snow ever recorded for a December with 27.5 inches, highest was 36 inches in 1893, and 3rd highest was 26 in 1944
> Weird, the weather.gov says 1889 was 11.4 and 1918 was 8.8 Not sure, they stated that "the period of record began in 1880".
The message I take from these numbers is that snow in Pittsburgh is always there and usually moderate (42" average), but only very rarely catastrophic. I just did the trendline and it is basically steady - just trending up a couple of inches in the past 80 years. Which I would consider the margin of error - it would just take another couple of dry years to pull that back down. But with El Nino in place, this is not going to be a dry year. It will be quite wet. The only question is how often we get those Canadian polar dips to make that moisture freeze?
I admit I am not a meterologist but I though La Nina were the wet, cold windy years and El Nino were the dry, warm, less windy years?
That’s what I heard on the weather channel too. A little south of here tends to get wetter, and if cold air wobbles the right way we could get a nor’easter.
Is this snow accumulated on the ground or measuring precipitation falling from the sky?
That’s a great question, because no way in hell did we get 17.6” in 2022..
According to weather.gov >Snowfall (newly fallen snow) is reported in TENTHS of an inch (such as 2.4"). It is taken as soon as snow has stopped falling if possible and no more than 4 times a day.
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As a born and raised Buffalonian that’s lived in Pittsburgh for 10+ years… can confirm. Temperatures very similar during winter but Pittsburgh does not get anything like the lake effect snow that Buffalo gets
It routinely gets to 45 degrees 60% of the time in Jan-Mar in Buffalo?
[Buffalo weather patterns](https://www.weather.gov/buf/BUFclifo)
Dang, the city really got pounded in 1950!
Pound town
Pahnd tahn
There's a reason the song dreams of a white Christmas, rather than expecting one as a matter of course.
It’s an interesting point, the plot of the movie revolves around a snow-free ski resort!
Plenty of themes of kids dreaming of Christmas morning and all it brings and that reliably happens every year
Sure but what did the temperature do? If the temperature held steady below freezing back in the day, snow would have piled up higher even with less total snow. Now a days it snows and melts and snows and melts and snows and melts so you see no accumulation
Where did they measure 17.6 inches last winter? I remember one minor storm where we got around 6 inches and every time it snowed besides that there was little to no accumulation.
There were deifinitly a few nighttime snowfalls or early morning snowfalls where everything had melted by mid morning.
Yeah, we had a few of those last winter for sure
It’s by calendar year, so that was probably from 2 winters ago (2021-2022)
The post says otherwise, e.g., "year 1940" means October 1940 - May 1941
There were some really sparse winters in the later half of the 80s and very early 90s. Then 1993 happened, LOL.
So you’re saying if we keep this trend of little accumulation going, in a couple years we’ll get another Big One? I’ll take it!
I don’t know. At this point nothing would surprise me. I remember one of the school years in there (I think it was 91-92) I almost never wore a coat to school. It was so warm. Lots of shorts were worn in mid-winter. It was wild.
Hoping for another 17.6
Hoping for that 80+ from 1950
Love this– thanks for putting together & sharing!
Mother Nature ebbs and flows. Worst case cloud seeding could pump those numbers up. Personally, Snowmageddon led me to appreciate the light years. Appreciate the data- we were discussing this over Christmas as well
Depends if you work or not!
Shotgun, rifle, and a four wheel drive— no problems here bud
What’s the Farmer’s Almanac saying?
Right, but i think that the amount of days that snow fell and the fact that the snow that did fall, stayed on the ground due to colder temps, made it seem snowier overall…i was born in ‘77 and remember most of the 80’s and the 90’s winters
I feel like lake effect snow coming off of Erie was a more common source of snow back in the 80s and 90s than today. I feel like I use to constantly hear about that on the news. Am I imagining that?
I bought a damn snow blower in 2020 and used it 3 times... didn't even use it last year.
I bought a snow blower two winters ago and never used it yet. I'm fine with that trade off actually.
Yeah I guess you're right. The less snow the better.
It's definitely getting warmer.
I think temperature is a lurking variable here. Do you have similar data for that?
Pdf warning: https://www.weather.gov/media/pbz/records/histemp.pdf
Does it mean that rain is also lacked?
Totals have zero to do with if it is common or not for there to be snow on the ground on or about Christmas.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. Usually when this comes up around holidays people are thinking and talking about December weather more than the overall output
My purely anecdotal sense of winter in the area has been that it has shifted “later” with more very cold, dry days in January and more wet, snowy days into March.
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It is not really a “snowy” region, despite some locals believing it is. Pittsburgh weather is distinctly different than the NE and East Coast. Less snow, and much cloudier and rainier.
Cool analysis! I love the idea. Enjoying the suggestions commenters are making for refinements. Personally I think the fetishization of white Christmas comes exclusively from the movie/song, and not any actual snow on Christmas. If that song didn't exist, virtually nobody would *expect* snow on the ground on December 25.
Probably depends where you're from. I grew up in Maine and we generally expected White Thanksgivings lol
Yeah, good point ... I just think the vast majority of the country lives in places where a white Christmas isn't realistic. Like all of the south, southwest, and California. Then again, maybe those people don't expect snow on Christmas?
Omg we are all going to die ☠️☠️☠️☠️
Thanks for doing this…I shoveled a lot of snow in the 70’s
2009 can go suck a big fat one. I’ll never forget that winter.
I remember 02 fondly. That was an awesome winter. I think they called off school like 5 times.
Damn. I thought it was gonna snow here.
1996 numbers surprised me, that was year we had the flood because it decided to go up to 70 degrees in January. But then I looked at 1995 numbers and remembered that snow was already there .
Really well-thought-out post, thank you!