"Cracking the Top Ten"

Well folks, we made it. This winter is officially one of the top ten snowiest in Milwaukee history. As of this morning, Milwaukee has recorded 80.5 inches of snow. This is good enough for 10th place in the record books, and moving up from there shouldn't be much of a problem.

Here is the list of top ten snowiest winters in Milwaukee:

RANK / AMOUNT / SEASON

1. . 109.8 -- 1885-86
2. ... 94.2 -- 1897-98
3. ... 93.3 -- 1959-60
4. ... 83.2 -- 1973-74
5. ... 82.9 -- 1978-79
6. ... 82.6 -- 1903-04
7. ... 81.9 -- 1993-94
8. ... 80.8 -- 1922-23
9. ... 80.7 -- 1977-78
10. ... 80.5 -- 2007-08

A typical winter in Milwaukee usually gets about 42 inches of snow.

The totals will probably continue to rise as the winter progresses. We still have the rest of March and April remaining, with more snow likely to fall yet before we officially reach Spring.

Please note: The winter season in these ranking is defined from July 1 to June 30 of the following year. This takes into account the entire cold season. This differs, however, from the meteorological winter, which is defined as December through February of the following year.

Stay tuned right here. I'll keep you updated as we climb in the rankings!

UPDATE: - (7:43 AM)
Oh, and here's a fun little fact to put things into perspective: If you think these snowfall numbers make Milwaukee look cold and frigid, don't be fooled. Even further north(west) -- up in Minneapolis (where my parents live) -- the National Weather Service reports only 25.3 inches of snowfall this winter. That's not even close to the kind of snow we have!

And how about this: All the way up in Fairbanks, Alaska -- where my friend Joni lives, they've only received a grand total of 37.9 inches this winter.

Long story short, we may be getting dumped on here in Milwaukee, but we're pretty lucky. Further north of here, the temperatures have been far too cold for snow. -- When the temperature drops to -4F, the air is too dry/frozen to form snowflakes, and thus it doesn't snow as often. Milwaukee is actually quite warm by comparison -- hense we get snow. :)

-Jon
posted by Jon at 7:08 AM  I   I  0 comments