Winter 2016-17 Review - A Record Warm February

Winter 2016-'17 will be remembered mostly for it's warm spells. Winter started out warm, with November 2016 one of the warmest ever with very little snow. December cooled off to near normal and there were a few December days where temperatures dropped to around zero. Snow picked up and a big lake effect snow occurred Decwmber 8-10th with more than 2 feet in some locations in the snowbelt of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. The cold weather and some lake effect snow continued into the first half of January, then it began to warm up. The warm weather blasted through February 2017 with average temperatures as much as 10 degrees above normal, the warmest February ever for most of the area! Just when folks were ready to hit the golf course, it got cold again in March. In fact, the average temperature for March 2017 was colder than February. A late season snow on April 6-7th capped off the winter. Snow totals outside of the snowbelt were below normal, especially across northwest Ohio, where a few spots did not even reach double digit seasonal snow totals. The volunteer snow observer in Port Clinton (Ottawa County, OH) recorded less than 9 inches for the entire season! Seasonal snow did increase to the east and areas around Youngstown and into Pennsylvania recorded near normal seasonal snow thanks to several late season snows. The snowbelt also ended up with near normal seasonal snow.

This is a map showing the seasonal snowfall totals across northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania.

Summary of Snowfall at Climate Sites
2016-2017	Oct 16	Nov 16	Dec 16	Jan 17	Feb 17	Mar 17	Apr 17	May 17	Total 2016-17
Toledo	0	T	13.2	2.8	1.0	4.7	0.7	0	22.4
Mansfield	0	0.2	11	6.6	3.8	10.7	4.3	0	36.6
Cleveland	0	0.9	9.6	11.5	3.2	9.3	2.8	0	37.3
Akron-Canton	0	2.1	7.5	7.4	4.2	13.5	2.5	0	37.2
Youngstown	0	4.4	23.3	13.6	6.1	20.1	2.0	0	69.5
Erie PA	0	2.4	22.2	33.4	10.3	9.8	0.5	0	78.6