December was odd month for weather

Like other months in 2007, December was a month for extremes.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Last month was one for the weather record books.

It was the second snowiest and the second wettest December in the Mahoning Valley since the National Weather Service started compiling such information in 1943.

It’s extremely unusual for that combination for a December in the Valley, according to a review of weather service data.

The only other year to make the top 10 in both categories for a December was 1968. That year had the sixth-snowiest and the seventh-wettest December.

“It’s not typical to have both,” said Mike Abair, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The temperature had a lot to do with last month being so snowy and wet, he said.

It was a wet month, but depending on the temperature, what fell from the sky was either rain or snow.

For example, the temperature Dec. 4 ranged from a high of 26 degrees to a low of 20 degrees. Four inches of snow fell that day measuring 0.2 inch of precipitation.

Rainfall is a straight measurement: One inch of rain equals an inch of precipitation. Precipitation also includes sleet and snow, however.

The amount of precipitation in sleet and snow is not as simple to calculate.

About 10 to 20 inches of snow is typically equal to 1 inch of precipitation depending on its moisture content. About 4 to 5 inches of sleet equals 1 inch of precipitation. Thus 3 inches of rain equals a greater amount of precipitation than 3 inches of snow or sleet.

There was 0.62 inch of rainfall Dec. 11 when the high temperature was 60 degrees with a low of 32 degrees.

The average temperature last month was 31.5 degrees, 1.1 degree higher than average for a December in the Valley.

January is supposed to get off to a snowy start. Shortly after the Valley was to ring in the New Year, the snow is supposed to fall and stick. The area was to receive 2 to 4 inches by this afternoon. During this past year, we lived through some of the wettest, driest and snowiest months in the Valley’s recorded weather history.

The 31.5 inches of snow that fell last January was the third most for that month, and the 23.9 inches that fell in February was the second most for that month. Together, the 55.4 inches of snow that fell was the most for any January-February combination in the area’s weather history.

Last January was the seventh-wettest for that month with the rainfall in August making it the seventh-wettest for that month. On the flip side, we experienced the sixth-driest May, the third-driest July and the sixth-driest August.

skolnick@vindy.com