Winter 2010-2011 Recap: Cool & Dry

Wintry weather can sometimes randomly pop up in late March and early April. In fact, the latest snowfall in Richmond recorded history was on April 28, 1898, where there was 2" of snow. Regardless, for the most part, winter is over. So let's look at some of the stats.

TEMPERATURE
December was the 7th coldest in history (link http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/akq/climate/special/RIC_AVE_T.pdf). The cold weather persisted into the first half of January, then the overall pattern changed. Temperatures generally remained above normal for the rest of winter. The map below shows that the entire Southeast U.S. experienced temperatures that were 2 to 6 degrees above normal for the month of February.



If you combine all months together, the overall average temperature for this winter was slightly below normal.

PRECIPITATION
There is no doubt about it: this winter was dry. We were roughly 2 to 4" below average across the entire state. Interestingly, we received 10.8" of snow, which is only slightly below the average of 11.9". Most of the snow fell in December and early January before the pattern change. You can see on the map below that we weren't the only ones dealing with dry conditions. It was even worse in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.