The recent return to sunshine, after nearly one full week of snowfall, gives us an opportunity to confirm what your aching back and shoulders and overheated snowblower already know — it wasn’t your typical start to the month.
More than 100 centimeters of snowfall through the first 10 days of February, including two record-breaking 24-hour blizzards, have already delivered more than twice the month’s normal snowfall and one-third of our 302-cm winter norm.
According to Environment Canada, Sault Ste. Marie received 103.7 cm of snow through Saturday, the most recent data available; the 30-year norm for the third-snowiest month of the winter season is 42.8 cm.
Six straight days of 7.5-cm-or-greater snowfall, Feb. 2 through Feb. 8, including three 24-hour periods of at least 15.8 cm, have brought us from typical winter snowfall to above-normal. The Sault began the month with 203.8 cm of snowfall, October through January, a modest 4 cm below our 207.3-cm norm. A late winter freeze combined with the jet-stream pattern created conditions for a “perpetual snow machine” earlier this month, according to Environment Canada.
“Lakes whose shorelines are at least normally frozen by Christmas are still wide open,” said Jim Cook, a climatologist with Environment Canada.
“The current jet stream pattern is bringing frigid Arctic air over still-warm waters, a major source of moisture, and the result was a perpetual snow machine for several days.”
Sixty-year accumulation records were shattered Feb. 4 and Feb. 7 for snowfall and total precipitation (the water equivalent of all types of precipitation).
The city received 25.0 cm of snow on Feb. 4, nearly twice the former 12.8 cm record for that date set in 2003, and 15.8 cm on Feb. 7, more than 6 cm greater than the former 9.4 cm of 1988.
But the snowfall on Feb. 4 was less than half of the 61 cm that descended upon the city Feb. 10, 1947, the snowiest 24-hour period in the Environment Canada weather books.
As well, 10.2 millimeters of total precipitation on Feb. 4 topped the former high water mark for that date of 9.4 mm set in 1963; 8.8 mm on Feb. 7 surpassed the former 7.1 mm record of 1946.
February traditionally brings us -4.2 afternoon highs, -9.7 overnight lows and 42.8 cm of snowfall.
Meanwhile, three entries into the record book in January were for afternoon highs.
It was the 19th month of above-average warmth in the past 20 and included 10 afternoons at 0 degrees or warmer, nearly twice our three-decade norm, including the first eight afternoons of 2007.
The average afternoon high of -2.6 was nearly three degrees above the -5.5 norm while the average -11.5 overnight low was four degrees above normal.
The -7.1 average for the month was more than three degrees above the -10.5 norm.
New records for afternoon warmth were established on three of the first four days of 2007.
The warmest New Year’s Day in 60 years saw the thermometer hit 3.5, compared to the old record of 2.8 in 1972, while it was 6.8 on Jan. 3, topping the former 5.7 standard of 1998, and 6.3 on Jan. 4, smashing the former 4.4 record of 1946.
We also experienced five nights of -20 or colder. This winter we’ve had seven such bitter nights, including two this month, bottoming out at -25.4 degrees Jan. 25.
January’s 95.1 cm of snowfall, including only one double-digit 24-hour period, was about 13 cm above our 81.7-cm norm. January is usually the snowiest month of the winter season.
Snowfall began in earnest Jan. 8, following a mere 0.3 cm accumulation through the first seven days of the year, as we experienced zero or trace snowfall on only four of the final 24 days of the month.
