Record Low August Northern Hemisphere Snowcover

[donsutherland1]

The issue of August's all-time record low Northern Hemisphere snowcover (2.1 million square kilometers) arose at another message board. Briefly, it should be noted that such low snowcover does not necessarily mean that the Northeastern United States (NYC and northward) will see a relatively snowless winter. Unfortunately, the news for the Washington, DC area is not very good.

Briefly, since Northern Hemisphere snowcover statistics were regularly provided in 1973, there have been 11 occurrences prior to this year's situation, whereby August Northern Hemisphere snowcover came to less than 3 million KM²:

Year....Millions of KM²
2003....2.2
1999....2.3
2001....2.3
1988....2.5
2000....2.5
2002....2.5
1989....2.6
1990....2.6
1984....2.7
1992....2.8
1993....2.8

Not all winters that followed such low snowcover proved relatively snowless in the Northeastern United States. A indication that a snowy winter lay ahead could be found in October and November Northern Hemisphere Snowcover.

There were four years in which October snowcover came to 17 million KM² or more and November snowcover came to 34 million KM² or more:

1993
2000
2002
2003

In the winters that followed, seasonal snowfall came to an average of 45.1" in NYC and 63.1" in Boston. All four seasons saw NYC's seasonal snowfall exceed 30". Three of four seasons saw Boston's seasonal snowfall come to more than 45" (2003-04 was the single exception with 39.4"; the first winter since Winter 1990-91 where NYC's snowfall exceeded Boston's).

However, the average seasonal snowfall in Washington, DC came to 18.4" (mainly due to the excessively snowy Winter 2002-03). However, 3 of 4 such winters saw less than 15" of snow for DCA.

In seasons where November snowcover came to 34 million KM² or more without regard to October's snowcover, NYC's average seasonal snowfall came to 41.0" and Boston's amounted to 67.3". NYC's lowest snowfall in such seasons was 24.5" (1992-93).

Washington, DC's average seasonal snowfall came to 17.0" in such winters. Four of five such winters saw less than 15" snowfall at Washington, DC.

Fortunately, at least from my pool of prospective analogs, the snowy 2002-03 winter is for now in the mix.

[Anonymous]

ya now its above normal snowcover, just tells ya how fast things can change.

[deguy50]

thats interesting