The 2015 - 2016 winter up to this point in the season has been anything but normal. After a record warm start including the warmest December of all-time for the Northeast, it took many in New England until December 29th to see the first measurable wintry event which included a mixed bag of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Not only did it rank among the top 5 latest first measurable events, but it was the latest since 1953 and 1954 for Hartford, CT and Boston, MA, respectively! Further south from New York City to Washington D.C, winter's slow start quickly kicked into high gear by mid-January. Mother Nature ushered in a snow squall and the first widespread measurable snow event on January 17 followed by the largest blizzard in twenty years on January 22 - 23, 2016. While snow deficits prior to this event ranged from 6 - 12 inches, the blizzard more than compensated and left many in the mid-Atlantic with a surplus exceeding 10 inches.
Since there was a sharp gradient across southern CT and NY, many of the New England cities began February with season-to-date snow deficits of 1 - 2 feet. However, back to back storms during early February added an additional 10 to 15 inches to seasonal totals, helping to bring New England closer to normal. Further south from New York to D.C, most received the normal amount of snow for the entire season just from the January blizzard so even with below normal snowfall in February, the handful of events pushed seasonal totals closer to and even above above last winter's seasonal total.
For more stats on the 2015 - 2016 winter thus far and to view comparisons to normal and to last winter, see the graphs below.
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