ZZZZZZ......old man winter sleeping

1/10  Well this post shouldn't take long.  Next chance at meaningful snow is around the 20th.  Being 10 days out, I'm not biting.  The snow this weekend should stay south, more impactful around DC/Delmarva.

Out of boredom, some stats from my area.

Counting today's snow showers, we've now had 6 days in which it snowed in December and January, surpassing the # of days it snowed in November finally.

Using OXC (Oxford/Waterbury Airport) as my official weather info climate site I've found the following interesting.

• we haven't had a low temperature that was below normal since December 19th.  
• since December 1st, we've had 8 nights with below normal low temps, all before December 19th and were mostly in the 12/4 to 12/12 date range
• December was 2.9° above normal with 7.24" of rain and 0.5" of snow.  Normal precip is 3.65"
• November was also wet with 7.28" of rain.  Normal is 4.26".  Also had 8" of snow
• Since December 14th, there have been 3 days averaging below normal temps, and those were -2
• January is running +8.5 temperature wise and on par for precip
• Our average temperature (high+low)/2 is 34.2 which is higher than our average high.
• OXC coldest days are 1/14 to 1/27 where highs are 33 and lows are 13.

There's been a lot of chatter about a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) that took place in the beginning of the month.  These typically shake up the troposphere eventually and are thought to bring colder temperatures.  There is a shot at that on the Euro weeklies, but it doesn't stick around.  Not what is usually expected from an SSW event.

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Looking at December stats from DXR.  High temp of 62, low of 13.  Average departure 1.8 (likely +2 after today).  Precip was 124% of normal. 0.6" of snow.

Looking at other Decembers with under an inch of snow: 2011, 2014 and 2015.  Throwing out 2015 since it was 12 degrees above normal and dry.

Dec 2011 - High temp of 60, low of 13 (very similar).  Average departure +4.8 (a little warmer, but yet a torch).  Precip 126% (very close) and snow a trace.

Dec 2014 - High temp 61, low 13 (very similar).  Average departure +2.8 (closer than 2011).  Precip 110% (pretty close) and snow .4"

So what happened in Jan-Mar of 2012?  Stayed warm the entire winter.  January +4.8; Feb +4.1 and Mar +8.  11" of snow between those three months.  

And Jan-Mar of 2015?  Brutally cold - seriously bad.   January 3.6 degrees below normal with 16" of snow; Feb was nearly 16 degrees below normal with 26" of snow and Mar was 7.6 below normal with 14" of snow. 

Even after the torch of Dec 15, we came back with 26" of snow in Jan-Mar. 

Point is that, well, anything can happen.