Midwest Overview - December, 2003

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December 2003 was somewhat wetter and warmer than normal in the Midwest, the 22nd warmest and 37th wettest December for the region in 109 years. Most of the southern Midwest received 2.5 or more inches of precipitation (Figure 1), but this was a bit below normal in most of this area (Figure 2) except for Missouri, which had its 14th wettest December on record. Snowfall was seasonable in most of the far northern Midwest, especially from northeastern Minnesota through the central region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Figure 3), but well below normal in central and southern Wisconsin and parts of southern Michigan (Figure 4). For parts of southern Michigan, this is the third consecutive winter with a snow drought. Even those areas to the north that received seasonable amounts of snow fall lost much of their snow cover due to 5-9°F warmer than normal conditions (Figure 5). Snow cover depth remained greater than 5 inches only in areas north of central Minnesota, far northern Wisconsin, and the UP of Michigan (Figure 6), affecting winter recreation opportunities for the third winter in a row in the northern Midwest.