December Cold & Wet Plus Looking Ahead

Despite the blowtorch warmth the last seven days of December with +9 to +12 above normal temperatures, the month still finish -2 to -4 below normal. Precipitation was +200 to +300 percent above normal too.

However that equated to around 3 inches of snow and a couple of ice storms. When we did get the precipitation, we had warm temperatures. It was a month to make snow lovers bitter and realize Mother Nature is a cruel and uncaring mistress.

Just some additional salt in our open wounds:

Chicago - 7th snowiest December on record
Detroit - 6th snowiest December on record
Rockford - 2nd snowiest December on record

I could list dozens of places in Wisconsin that had their snowiest December ever. Remember last winter was a record setting winter for much of Wisconsin. They are significantly ahead of that already.

So what is ahead in our forecast? Before I answer, let's take a look at a Area Forecast Discussion put out earlier this week my the Indianapolis Office of the National Weather Service.

THE NEXT CHANCE OF PRECIP WILL BE IN THE FORM OF SNOW ON THURSDAY NIGHT. LOW PRESSURE MOVES FROM THE NORTHERN PLAINS INTO THE UP OF MICHIGAN FROM THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY. A COLD FRONT WILL PASS THROUGH THE STATE AND BRING SNOW TO CENTRAL INDIANA. THE TRACK OF THIS HISTORICALLY DOESNT TRANSLATE INTO BIG SNOW AMOUNTS FOR CENTRAL INDIANA AND A QUICK INCH OR SO WILL BE THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO. THE MODELS HAVE BEEN QUITE CONSISTENT WITH THIS SO CONFIDENCE IS GOOD THAT SOME MEASURABLE SNOW WILL OCCUR.

They were pretty confident for several days about the snow for tonight into tomorrow. So were the models and so was I. The snow threat evaporated and now we are going to remain dry. There are more threats on the forecast models but they don't seem to be handling the weather pattern correctly. There was a huge threat for the weekend into the first of next week. It looked to shut down the east coast from DC to Maine. But it evaporated too.

There look to be several hits of snow for us in the next couple of weeks but until we get closer and confidence is extremely high, then I will just go about business as normal and quit getting excited about nothing.