At a Glance
- Snow cover in the Lower 48 states is a record low for mid-November
- Many locations in the northern tier of states have yet to see their first accumulating snow.
- Widespread record warmth and a
At a Glance
- Snow cover in the Lower 48 states is a record low for mid-November
- Many locations in the northern tier of states have yet to see their first accumulating snow.
- Widespread record warmth and a diverted jet stream are to blame.
- Overall, this doesn't necessarily portend a mild winter.
Areal coverage of snow cover in the Lower 48 of the United States has shattered mid-November record lows, according to a government analysis.
Less than one-half of one percent of the land area of the contiguous U.S. had snow on the ground on the morning of Nov. 14, according to NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center's National Snow Analysis.
We had to draw arrows on our Nov. 14 snow cover map to point out the lone snow covered-holdouts, mainly in the highest peaks of the Rockies and Cascades.
Northern New England? Zilch. Upper Michigan, northern Minnesota, North Dakota. Nope, nope, and nope.
Even the few places in the mountain West reporting snow on the ground, it isn't exactly plentiful. A few protesters in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, let their voices heard not about the presidential election, but about the lack of snow.
On Nov. 14, 2015, Mount Rainier's Paradise Ranger Station, typically one of the snowiest places in the Lower 48 States, reported 16 inches of snow on the ground.
This November, not so much. Only a few, crusty old piles of snow in spots remained for park visitors to behold.
This dearth of early-season snow can be attributed to record recent warmth, a storm track recently diverted into Canada and, when wet Pacific storms do arrive, the dominance of warm air raising snow levels.
How Unusual Is This?
Daily national snow analyses have been compiled by NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center since 2003.
In their 14-year dataset, no first two weeks of November have featured so little snowfall in the Lower 48 states.
Statistically, this November is in another league, so far. No single day in November 2016's first two weeks has had more than 2.9 percent of the Lower 48 States with snow on the ground.
On average, by November 14, about 13.3 percent of the area of the Lower 48 states has snow on the ground.
Looking at the 14-day mean from November 1 through 14, only 2007 comes nearly as close to 2016's snow dearth.
|Previous Record Least||2007||2.46 percent|
While for some this is just a week or two later than the average first snow of the season, others are piling up some rather sizable snowfall deficits already.
In a few locations, this is pushing the record for the latest season's first measurable snow.
- Marquette, Michigan (NWS office in Negaunee Township): Nov. 19, 1994
- Denver, Colorado: Nov. 21, 1934
- Caribou, Maine: Nov. 23, 1994
Any Indicator on the Rest of Winter?
There is no correlation in recent years between early November U.S. snow cover, or lack there