Winter 2004-05 Review

Winter 2004-'05 threw some good punches although it was not overly cold. Temperatures averaged above normal for the winter but snow totals were well above average, with snowfall records at some sites. Aside from a very cold Christmas morning, most of the winter was just cold enough for snow. In fact, the mild temperatures often made for wet snow and some tough shoveling. Interestingly, it was just cold enough for much of Lake Erie to freeze over, primarily from colder air on the Ontario side of the lake. The ice would grow on the Canadian side, then be blown south into the American waters. There was not a lot of lake effect snow since the air masses were not very cold and the lake eventually became ice covered. Some of snow storms were lake enhanced though - that is, the atmosphere picked up moisture from the lake and snow totals were higher near Lake Erie.

There were several impressive snow and ice storms in late December and early January as well as some flooding in between. There was a lull in the winter weather from late January through February. March brought typical late season snow - enough to shovel and remind us that winter was not quite over. Then, just when the spring buds were starting to pop, April brought a double whammy not seen in many years, perhaps since the great snow storm that hit eastern Ohio in 1901! April was the snowiest on record at Cleveland, Youngstown, and Mansfield OH and the third snowiest in Erie PA. The snow storm of April 2-3 brought over a foot of snow to a wide area of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania with some locations of northwest Pennsylvania getting over two feet of snow and near blizzard conditions - the biggest storm of the year! The late April storm on the 24th and 25th dumped over a foot of heavy, wet snow on the eastern and southern suburbs of Cleveland bringing down trees and power lines. The winter ended as the snowiest on record at Cleveland and finished in the top ten at most other locations.