Where is winter? When Detroit can expect a return to real winter
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Does anybody else feel like they're looking around a "Where's Waldo" book trying to find Winter this year? You can look all over, but you won't find even a sniff of it.
Not only are temperatures way higher than normal and snowfall totals way below normal - but it all looks like it will continue for most of the month! It's wild!
First off, what's happened? High temperatures so far in January have ranged from 33 degrees to 60 degrees, with a monthly average around 42 degrees. This is over 10 degrees higher than normal!
On top of that, we haven't fallen below 26 degrees, which is nuts when you consider that this time of the year the AVERAGE low is 20. Last year, there were 25 days where we dipped to under 20 degrees and 14 days started in single digits.
It's entirely possible we won't see ANY days in single digits this January.
To add to that, we've seen barely any snow. Since January 1, we've gotten a paltry 0.2 inches of snow and so far this entire season we've only had five inches. Most of that came from the Christmas storm when we got 4.6 inches of snow. If you take that out, we've gotten less than ONE TOTAL INCH of snow since December 1st.
And looking ahead, I don't see too much winter weather to run out the month. There are indications that we may get a snowstorm near January 22-23 but the end of the month and into early February it will likely be above average temperatures.
So... why? The answer lies in the Big Picture steering patterns.
Around the country, we've had the jet stream ushering most weather patterns just south of us and toward the Northeast. Big cities in Ohio have gotten more rain/sleet/snow than us while cities like Buffalo have had one of their harshest winters ever.
We continue to remain in the "Sweet Spot" when it comes to avoiding the winter weather while also remaining milder than normal.
Will it continue? For a short while yes, but for the long term, no. It looks like we will wrap up January on the milder side but like last year, February will likely see a turn of the winter weather.
In fact, last year February had over 20" of snow! So, it's not over yet.
