MIDWEST CLIMATE: ABOUT THE SNOW CLIMATOLOGY TOOL
The Midwestern Regional Climate Center is proud to present a snowfall total climatology for over 1800 stations nationwide! This climatology will answer questions such as:
- How many days on average does a station receive measurable snowfall per year?
- How many days on average does a station receive 2 or more inches of snowfall in January?
- How many days on average does a station receive 6 or more inches of snowfall over a two-day period?
- How many times has more than a foot of snow fallen during a three-day period?
Data Available
Total number of days and average days per year are available for one-day, two-day and three-day snowfall totals. Ten thresholds are available:
- 0.1 in (Measurable snowfall)
- 1.0 in
- 2.0 in
- 3.0 in
- 4.0 in
- 6.0 in
- 8.0 in
- 12.0 in
- 18.0 in
- 24.0 in
Several of these thresholds were chosen based on National Weather Service criteria in many central U.S. offices for winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings.
Where do I find specific dates? Station threshold searches that include specific dates can be completed through the
cli-MATE data portal under Station Data>>Daily>>Threshold Search. Two- and three-day extremes can also be found using the Multi-Day Extremes tool on cli-MATE.
Methodology
The snowfall climatology is based upon data starting from the 1960-61 snow year (beginning July 1, 1960) through the most recent snow year. Included stations required at least 90 percent non-missing data on all days having at least a 5 percent probability of snowfall. Monthly and annual snowfall averages were derived from daily average snowfall values. This was done to mitigate issues with missing data.
Two- and Three-Day Totals Limitations
Two- and three-day totals are a summation of snowfall over those periods. This could mean that the snowfall came from multiple events. For example, six inches falls on Day 1, zero inches fall on Day 2 and four inches fall on Day 3. The three-day total of ten inches would be considered to be above the threshold of eight inches and would count, despite coming from separate snowfall events. These totals are also counted multiple times if the one or two day threshold is already met. For example eight inches of snow falls in one day and zero inches fell in each of the previous two days and the following two days. The event will be counted three times under the eight inch threshold as three different three-day periods are considered to meet the threshold.
What are ThreadEx Stations?
Stations that are shown as large circular polygons (as opposed to points) are ThreadEx stations. These stations are “threaded” through multiple stations in a city area to create a longer and more complete period of record. Read more about the cautions and limitations of using these stations here.
How Often Will This Climatology Be Updated?
The MRCC will update this climatology once per year after the conclusion of the snow year.