We are now more than halfway through meteorological winter and we have very little snow to show for it. O'Hare picked up a trace of snow on both Saturday and Sunday to bring the grand total to an unimpressive 1.3" so far. That is 12.6" below average. Each day we go without a 1" snowfall adds to a record. Today is the 325th straight day without a 1" or more snowfall (during a calendar day). We have smashed the old record of 313 straight days back in the winter of 1939-1940. This is the 4th latest we have ever gone into a winter without a 1" snowfall. The latest we ever went into a winter without at least a 1" snowfall was January 8th, 1944. The only snow in the forecast through the weekend is a few flurries Wednesday night or Thursday morning so it appear we will break that record also.
There is snow out there. Nearly half the contiguous US (44.6%) has snow cover (see below). Last year at this time about 33% of the US was reporting snow cover.
Part of the reason for the lack of snow has been a lack of cold air. Today could end up being the coldest day of the season so far but it is only one of 6 days that have been below average all season. The 8 to 14 day outlook does give snow lovers some hope with a 50-60% probability of below average temperatures here. We are also outlooked for above average precipitation during that period.
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