Snowfall so far this season in the U.S. has varied from feet of snow for some to an unusual lack for others in the East, Midwest and West.
The national overview: The map below from NOAA shows an estimate of season-to-date snowfall across the country since the end of September.
Let’s go region by region and lay out both the snow buried and snow lacking areas, relative to an average season through mid-December.
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East
Snow buried: Even by typical standards, the Great Lakes snowbelts have taken it on the chin repeatedly, primarily since Thanksgiving.
Erie, Pennsylvania, had only 0.1 inch of snowfall for the season through Thanksgiving. They, then picked up 22.6 inches of snow on Black Friday, alone, their record heaviest calendar-day snow. Their 59 inches of seasonal snow is the most of any season through Dec. 12 on record, over three times their average-to-date (17.6 inches).
The Lake Erie snowbelt town of Dewittville, New York, has already picked up 72.5 inches of snowfall through the morning of Dec. 13 from these multiple, recent lake-effect snow events. The Lake Ontario snowbelt town of West Carthage, New York, has 70 inches of snowfall so far, again all since Thanksgiving.
Parts of the Catskills and Poconos have also done quite well, primarily paced by a snowstorm the week before Thanksgiving. An observer near Delhi, New York, has already tallied 43.4 inches of snow this season.
(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)
Snow lacking: The immediate Interstate 95 corridor hasn’t seen much snow yet this season. Neither Boston (0.3 inches), nor Providence, Rhode Island (0.8 inches), has seen much. Instead, Providence had its wettest winter day on record on Dec. 11.
New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.’s Reagan Airport each haven’t seen measurable snowfall yet. However, the season’s first measurable snow typically happens in mid-late December in these areas, as senior meteorologist Chris Dolce pointed out.
Midwest
Snow buried: We have to start once again with the Great Lakes snowbelts.
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, had their record-longest wait for their first measurable snow of the season, which arrived over a month later than average on November 25. But they were then buried by 69.4 inches of snow over the next 18 days through Dec. 12.
In Lower Michigan, the National Weather Service near Gaylord picked up 81.7 inches of snow over a 15-day stretch from Thanksgiving Day through Dec. 12. It even prompted an NWS staff meteorologist to commute to the office on his snowmobile.
Snow lacking: Parts of the Northern Plains and upper Midwest have seen, at most, dribs and drabs of snow.
Around 2 inches of snow is all that both Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rapid City, South Dakota, have managed, each about 10 inches behind the average pace through Dec. 12.
La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Omaha, Nebraska, are each waiting for their first 1-inch snow of the season, as well.
West
Snow buried: The biggest winners so far have been a stretch of Oregon and Northern California from the Cascades to the Siskiyous and northern Sierra. Some basins in southwest Oregon and far northern California have double the average snowpack, as measured by estimated snow water equivalent, as of Dec. 12, according to the USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service.
Colorado and New Mexico have been a bit of a mixed bag. Parts of those states were hammered by Winter Storm Anya in early November, a record snowstorm for Las Vegas, New Mexico (31.7 inches).
But there hasn’t been much since, except in Colorado’s high country. Snowpack in New Mexico has dropped well below average in most areas since that November storm.
Snow lacking: To illustrate this, let’s look at what we alluded to earlier, the current status of the snowpack. That’s important for the West, in particular, since melting snow in the spring replenishes reservoirs supplying water.
The map below shows much of Montana, Wyoming, northern Utah, Arizona and New Mexico have below average snowpack as of mid-December.
For example, Casper, Wyoming, is on a record long wait for their first measurable snow of the season, over two months later than average and almost 22 inches behind their typical season snowfall pace as of Dec. 12.
Flagstaff, Arizona, at an elevation of 7,014 feet, is over a foot of snow behind their average pace, and hasn’t seen any snowfall since Nov. 7.
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NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center expected the rest of winter (through February) to trend wetter than average in the Northwest, northern Rockies and Midwest, but continue to be drier than usual in the Southwest and southern Rockies.
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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
