ABC6 WeatherLab – Worst Winter Ever

Here’s a recap of how harsh of a Winter it has been here in Southern New England. The Winter started out innocently enough, with a relatively mild and quiet month of December. Providence only got an inch of snow for the entire month. Then the first 3 weeks of January were also rather uneventful. But when SNE was hit with the (first) Blizzard of 2015 on Jan. 26-27, the stage was set for what would end up being the harshest Winter in the capital city’s 100+ year data history. Providence experienced its 6th snowiest January (25.6″), its snowiest February (31.8″) and its 9th snowiest March (16.3″). We even got a trace of snow in the first week of April. All in all, it was the 2nd snowiest Winter on record in Providence. The record remains the Winter of  1995-96, when over 105″ snow was reported.

Now looking at all those snow stats is enough to make your head spin, and your back ache (from all the shoveling, of course). But we haven’t even talked about how COLD it was this Winter. So let’s talk about it. February was the 2nd coldest Winter month ever recorded in Providence, with a monthly temperature that was nearly 14 degrees below normal. Then March came along and ended up being the 4th coldest March on record, and coldest in over 50 years. And if you look at the first three months of 2015, it was the coldest 1st 3 months of a year ever recorded in Providence (records date back to 1905). Here’s a funny stat: March 2015 would have been normal if instead of March, it had been February. You see, the average daily mean temperature in March 2015 was just a touch over 32 degrees, which is the NORMAL average daily mean temperature for the month of February.

Suffice it to say we can’t wait for warmer weather to not only return to SNE, but to stay. That should happen sometime in July. I’m kidding, kind of.

-Kevin Coskren, ABC6 StormTracker WeatherTeam

kcoskren@abc6.com @kcoskrenabc6