GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A November in which West Michigan saw record snowfall got many people worried that we were in for a repeat of last year’s nasty winter weather.
However, the exact opposite has been the case through the first two weeks of December, with Grand Rapids only picking up a tenth of an inch of snow officially, and all of the previous snow cover melting away.
Not only has it been mild, but it has been unusually dry. So far in December, there have already been five days without any form of precipitation. Last year, we only had four days in the entire month.
When you factor in the forecast for the rest of the week, we may have as many as nine or ten dry days in hand by Sunday. Last winter (meteorological winter runs through December, January, and February) we had only twelve such days in total.
Such a flip-flop is not unprecedented. While most of the snowiest Novembers on record stayed active through December, some did not. In 1955, there was 18.6″ of snow in November, followed by only 9.4″ in December and even less, 5.3″, in January 1956. February through April saw above-average snow that season, however.
And two seasons saw November become the snowiest month of the entire winter — 1940-41 and 1995-96. With a total of 31.0″ this November that would be above average any month of the season, it’s entirely plausible that may be the case this time around as well.
Check out the 7 day forecast anytime on the Weather page.
