Weather
By Dan Skeldon
Let me confess and offer full disclosure: I am a snow lover. I always have been, and I presume I always will be. I trace the origins back to February 6-7th, 1978, when a slow moving Nor’easter dropped a record 55 inches of snow on my small town in Northern Rhode Island. As it turned out, it slammed South Jersey pretty hard too. Granted, I was only two years old, may not officially “remember” the blizzard, and may not have been on my path to a meteorologist just yet. That came at the age of nine when Hurricane Gloria blew through, but that’s a topic for another column and another season. But no type of weather gets me more excited, and coincidentally is more challenging to forecast, than an old-fashioned East Coast snowstorm.
Of course, the love for snow is far from universal, and seems to have somewhat of a tie to age, at least from what my informal “research” shows. Over the last two decades, I’ve spoken to hundreds of groups throughout South Jersey, from kindergarten classes to AARP members to everyone in between. And when I inevitably ask the question “Who likes snow?” before reminiscing about my snowy escapades over my long and snowbound career, the number of hands that go up steadily decreases the older you get. I’ve also found the mention of snow can be divisive, though thankfully not as much so as the political landscape we are living in right now. There are some that love snow, and many that cringe at the mere mention of the word.
But if you’re among those that aren’t so fond of the flakes, you certainly have a lot to be thankful for of late, as we skate pretty easily through another winter, at least so far. The last time we had any measurable snow on the ground was roughly some 400 days ago, back on December 11, 2019. And even then, it was only a coating, a fraction of an inch of snow, that promptly melted the next day. The last time we had 6 inches or more of snow from a single storm was way back on the first day of Spring in 2018 (March 21). And for a foot of snow in one shot, go back two months prior to the Blizzard of 2018 on January 3-4th, the three year anniversary of which we just passed 10 days ago. So yes, it has certainly been a while since we’ve seen a big one or any one, really.
Yes, it truly is the winter of a South Jersey snow lover’s discontent. Or more appropriately, it is the last winter-and-a-half now, or about 400 straight days. Officially, we’re in the midst of the third longest stretch where there has been no measurable snow on the ground in South Jersey. According to the National Weather Service however, we have quite a ways to go to claim the top spot. Back in the early 1970’s, we managed to go almost two years, or just over 700 days, with no snow cover from February 1972 to February 1974. It’s a record that is of course depressing for snow lovers to find we are now in the Top 3 for, and a record that dendrite despisers hope we break with no snow for the rest of this winter, or possibly next too?
So the next logical question would revolve around our snow chances looking ahead, both in the short and longer terms. Let’s take them in order, and start with the immediate future, which is of course the easier answer to provide. And that answer is a simple one. With no big storms in sight and any bona fide cold air locked way up in Canada for the foreseeable future, our snow chances remain meager through the middle of January. Now there have been suggestions for some time now of a pattern change to colder and stormier later this month, and that could possibly be the case. But it is far from a guarantee, and at least for now, snow will remain elusive to the South Jersey snow lover a while longer.
Now it’s not all gloom and doom for those that have some faith in some flakes this winter. Remember, late January through mid-February is normally the snowiest time in an average winter in South Jersey. And over the past decade, March has been especially snowy at times, much to the chagrin of those hoping for an early spring. All it takes is one good snowstorm to break the drought, and that’s always possible over the second half of the winter. So while there’s no immediate opportunities for some “white gold”, all hope is not lost for the rest of the winter to strike it rich.
And in case you’re wondering, the latest measurable snow on record in South Jersey was back in late April of 1956, when a record 2.4 inches of snow fell on April 24, over a month into the spring season. Better late than never, right snow lovers?
Meteorologist Dan Skeldon has a degree in meteorology from Cornell University. He has forecasted the weather in South Jersey for the last 18 years, first on the former television station NBC40 and then on Longport Media radio. Dan has earned the American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval for Broadcast Meteorologists, and now does television broadcasts on WFMZ-TV in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
