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Winters of our discontent keep piling up during the 21st century
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
Janet Zolla, of Boardman, shovels snow from her Glenwood Avenue driveway on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
YOUNGSTOWN
Years from now, you can tell your grandchildren you lived through the snowiest winter seasons in Mahoning Valley weather history, at least up to this point.
And unlike your grandparents’ tall tales of walking to school in several feet of snow five miles uphill, both ways, you’d be telling the truth — at least about the snow.
The top-four snowiest winters have occurred during the past five years.
As of Wednesday, 91.5 inches of snow has fallen on the Valley this winter.
It is already the second-snowiest winter for the area with 11.4 inches more needed to set a new record.
It’s happened even though the first measured snow accumulation wasn’t till Dec. 1, and with only two days, Dec. 6 and 14, in which more than 6 inches of snow fell.
The National Weather Service forecast doesn’t call for more snow till Friday night, with a 50 percent chance of snow showers. But it’s going to be very cold.
The wind chill is expected to be as low as 7 below zero this morning, as low as 9 below zero tonight, and about 10 below zero Friday morning.
That could mean a half dozen or more local school districts with delayed starts, including Poland, where Superintendent Dr. Robert L. Zorn said it’s been the worst winters for closings and delays in 40 years.
“This winter has been terrible,” he said. “Come on, spring.”
The National Weather Service has snow data going back to 1934 and takes official weather measurements for the area at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.
The snowiest winter on record is 2007-08 with 102.8 inches, No. 3 is 2006-07 at 90.2 inches and No. 4 is 2008-09 at 86.5 inches. The 2009-10 winter season had 75.7 inches of snow, 2 inches shy of being the area’s 11th-snowiest winter season.
Dropping to No. 5 is 1950-51 with 85.3 inches of snow. Without the 20.7 inches of snow that fell during a 24-hour period between Nov. 24 and 25, 1950, that winter season wouldn’t be near the top 10.
The average winter snow accumulation for the Valley is 54.4 inches. In comparison, the area had 53.1 inches of snow in December 2010.
Why has it snowed so much more in the past few years than at any other time in the past 77 years?
“I have no explanation,” said Dennis Bray, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.
When asked about global warming, Bray said, “I would not attribute it to climate change. You’re just getting a lot of snow.”
Mark Koontz, chief meteorologist for 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, added: “No, it’s not climate change. We’ve had lake-effect [snow]. It’s one of those things.”
As of Wednesday, Youngstown has more snow this winter compared to several snowbelt cities, including Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo, Koontz said.
Dr. Bill Buckler, a Youngstown State University associate professor of geography for more than 20 years, said, “I can’t say concretely why we’re having more snowfall in recent years.”
Buckler teaches courses in weather, global climates, and severe and hazardous weather.
“Our weather is very dynamic,” he said. “We’re getting more snow now than years before. It’s not unusual. It just happens. Some years, it’s wetter. Some years, it’s drier. In the past, we’ve had cold temperatures or warmer weather.”