March 1, 2001

Ha, Ha: Statistically, Winter Is Over

BY VERONICA ROSMAN

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
 

It's the first day of March in the Midlands. The ground is still covered with snow and the mercury hasn't topped 50 degrees in nearly two months. 

After last year, this probably seemed more like a normal Midlands winter. 

No, say weather experts, this winter wasn't normal - even for Nebraska and Iowa. It was worse. 

"We are used to taking the bad along with the good. But this winter was just plain bad," said Ken Dewey, weather expert with the High Plains Climate Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

This winter - considered December, January and February for statistical purposes - was snowier and colder than normal in most of the Midlands. It was Omaha's coldest winter in 17 years. And Des Moines has had snow on the ground for 77 days, the second-longest snow-cover string on record. 

Although this winter didn't break any temperature or snowfall records, it may be remembered as one of the more persistent, miserable winters in history, weather experts said. 

First, a cold snap in December lasted more than three weeks and was accompanied by a series of storms that each dumped a half-foot of snow or more on the Midlands. Then - after a relatively calm January - the storms started up again in February, including one at the end of the month that blasted parts of south-central Nebraska with another foot of snow. 

"We've definitely had colder and snowier winters," Dewey said. "But even during those winters, we had more warm days than we've had this year. This was winter, uninterrupted." 

For example, Omaha has had only two days this winter when the temperature climbed above 50 degrees. Last year, there were 25 such days, and an average winter has at least six. 

On the other end of the thermometer, there were 14 days this winter when the temperature dropped below zero, compared to only three days last winter. 

In February alone, Omaha's highest temperature was only 44 degrees. Lincoln's was 47. And even the average date for the year's first 60-degree reading - Feb. 20 - passed by without blinking. The high in Omaha that day was 27 degrees. 

Omaha's winter temperature averaged around 21 degrees, which is several degrees below normal. While this winter won't make the list of Top 10 coldest winters, it is the coldest since the winter of 1983-1984. 

In Iowa, the statewide average temperature should finish around 16.9 degrees, which is 4.5 degrees below normal and makes this the state's coldest winter in 22 years. But it still only ranks about 18th on the list of coldest winters, said Harry Hillaker, Iowa's state climatologist. 

The season's heavy snowfall is the other part of the story, weather experts said. 

Some parts of central Nebraska, including Hastings, Neb., have received more than 45 inches of snow this winter. Hastings averages about 31 inches in a normal winter, said the National Weather Service. 

So far this winter, about 38 inches of snow has fallen on Omaha and 34 inches on Lincoln, compared to just 11.9 inches during the same time last year. Omaha's average seasonal snowfall is 28.4 inches. 

Des Moines has received 43.7 inches of snow this winter. 

And although everyone knows spring must arrive eventually, there aren't any signs that it will show up anytime soon, the experts said. 

The good news, Dewey said, is that the weather pattern that supplied the arctic air earlier in the winter has shifted. The bad news, he said, is that the new pattern keeps funneling storms that have more moisture and can produce heavy snow or rain. 

That pattern seems likely to remain in place through the first two weeks of March. 

"It's cloudy, cold and snows every few days. It's like living in New England or Vancouver during the winter," Dewey said. "And there's no short-term end in sight."