Notable Weather Events of 2014

Brrr!!!

As we rang in the new year we were in the midst of what would turn out to be the coldest winter in 20 to 30 years!!  While December 2013 was not too far from normal both in temperatures and snowfall statistics, the outbreaks of arctic air started in January.  One such cold outbreak occurred on January 5th - 7th when night lows dipped below zero.  Winds gusted to 30-35 MPH and this created a dangerous wind chill (-35 to -45 degrees) in which exposed skin would experience frostbite in a mere 10 minutes.  New record lows were established at all of the major climate sites on both the 6th and the 7th.  It was the coldest we had been since January of 1994.  Lake Erie was nearly ice covered by January 8th.  It took just 4 days as the lake was primed for a quick freeze.  The below zero temperatures made that a reality.  The cold was nearly continuous as we endured a northwest flow of air from Canada and the Arctic most of the winter.  The pattern held strong and persistent snow cover helped contribute to and enhance the cold.  All of the climate sites had one of their ten coldest February’s ever.

Click on each of the tabs below to show the tables on how the winter season '13-'14 made it into the record books.  There were at least two cold related deaths in northern Ohio.

Snow!!!

To complement the cold temperatures, many locations had one of the top 10 snowiest winters on record (see the above tables).  In fact Toledo broke their previous all-time record with 86.3 inches!  This was more than twice their normal seasonal snowfall.  Toledo had 6 days during the winter that had snowfall of 4 inches more which is well above average.  Erie, PA was also above normal for the more significant snow days.  Cleveland, on the other hand, nickeled and dimed their way to an above average seasonal total with only 4 days with 4 inches or better.

One of the more significant snowstorms and wintry mixes occurred on February 4th and 5th with a mixture of snow, freezing rain and sleet.  Over 10 inches of snow fell across the northern tier of countries with significant ice accumulation further south.  Schools were closed for several days due to the snow and ice. In addition, schools closed on a number of days due to dangerous wind chills. Many school districts ended using more than their allotted calamity days over the course of the winter.  Another episode of heavy snow occurred on the 17^th and 18^th.  This time Northeast Ohio saw the greatest accumulations. 

Rare Phenomenon!!!

On January 21st a few lucky people experienced a rare atmospheric optical phenomenon: light pillars.  Light pillars occur when light is reflected off of plate-shaped ice crystals in the air.  The light pillars appear as vertical columns of light extending above or below the source of light, which can be street lights, headlights on cars, or even the moon.  It requires very cold air, high humidity, and little to no wind.

People all across the area woke up on January 27th to see a rare phenomenon: snow rollers.  These wind driven balls of snow need just the right conditions to form and this was it.  As the temperatures began to drop below freezing early that morning a couple inches of snow fell atop the refrozen snowpack and winds were sustained around 20-25 MPH (gusting to 40-60 MPH). 

Ice Jams!!!

Such cold temperatures formed thick ice on area rivers in January and February.  In some instances the ice was 8"-10" thick. Of course Lake Erie was also frozen at the mouths of the rivers.  Combine the ice with a snowpack that had up to 2 inches of water within it and warm temperatures and rainfall and the result can be significant ice jams and flooding.  A brief warm up led to minor ice jams in January.  Late in February, the Vermilion River had flooding as ice began to break up and then chunks of ice became lodged against bridges, bends in the river, and against Lake Erie ice.  Flooding can occur upstream of the ice jam as water backs up and then flooding can occur downstream once the jam becomes dislodged.

Great Lakes Ice

The cold temperatures also allowed for ice on the Great Lakes to reach its 2nd greatest extent on record (1973-2014).  On March 6th 92.2% of the Great Lakes had ice cover.  The record remains at 94.7 percent from 1979.  Last season, Lake Erie peaked at 96.4% on March 6th.  For more information visit the NWS Great Lake Ice Climatology page or the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

Moving On

While March continued to have temperatures that ran well below normal, April through June averaged slightly above normal as we began to see a shift in the pattern.  The warmer weather brought frequent rounds of severe weather.  The first significant severe weather event occurred on April 29th with damaging winds reported across north central Ohio. 

By May we had the area's first tornados which occurred in Lorain and Medina counties (May 12th) along with flash flooding in the Akron and Cleveland areas.  Slow moving storms brought intense rainfall rates that produced destructive flash floods across dozens of communities. Thousands of homes and businesses in northern Ohio were flooded. County-level emergencies were declared in Lorain, Medina and Summit counties. The rainfall intensity was around a 500 year event for many of the hardest hit communities.

The first 90+ degree days occurred in June (17th and 18th) which made those cold winter months seem like the distant past.  These warm temperatures led to a significant severe weather event on the 18th.  Hail and winds greater than 70 MPH caused damage across northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania.  An EF1 caused damage in Brunswick (Medina County) on the 23rd of June.

For the first time in years, no 90 degree temperatures were reported in July (and some locations, including Youngstown, never did hit 90+ in 2014).  For Toledo, Mansfield, Youngstown and Cleveland, July 2014 made it into the top ten coolest Julys on record.  Temperatures for the month average four degrees below normal.  This pattern limited the extent of severe weather and events were more isolated.  There were multiple tornadoes on July 8th with three EF1 tornadoes and one EF0 tornado.  Two of the tornadoes struck Medina County and for the second time in two weeks, one struck Brunswick and caused minor damage.  The other tornadoes were in Mahoning and Lorain counties.  Cool weather the second half of the month lead to numerous reports of waterspouts on Lake Erie.

Temperatures August, September and October averaged within a degree of normal.  September was rather dry and this led to very warm weather at the beginning of the month.  The warmest temperatures of the year occurred on September 5^th when readings soared into the lower 90s.  Four weak EF0 tornadoes occurred on September 10^th.  Three of these were in Portage County with the fourth in Summit County. Only minor damage was reported.

Winter got off to an early start in November.  After seasonable temperatures the first half of the month, readings took a turn downward.  Highs failed to get out of the teens on the 18^th and there were several days of highs below freezing.  The first significant snow of the year occurred on the 13^th through the 15^th with more than a foot of snow to the east of Cleveland in the snowbelt.  In Erie, PA the 12.6 inches of snow they received on November 13the was the earliest occurrence for them of a snowfall of that magnitude.  Another bout of snow for the area occurred on the 20^th and 21^st.  This was followed by a big warm up on the 24^th which led to an outbreak of severe weather.  Winds in excess of 60 mph downed thousands of trees and led to scattered power outages throughout the region.  Cleveland finished the month with its 4^th snowiest November and both Youngstown and Erie with their 8^th snowiest. 

Although 2014 started like a lion, it went out as a lamb.  Virtually no snow fell during the month of December with temperatures averaging between four and five degrees above normal.   Many sites ended up in the top five rankings for least snowiest December’s ever.
 

A Summary of Records Set in 2014

2013-2014 Seasonal Snowfall

A text description of the 2013-2014 Season Snowfall and the snowfall totals that contributed to this map can be found here.

Monthly Records...

A number of monthly temperature and precipitation records occurred across our climate sites this year.

     All of these monthly statistics for our climate stations can be found year round by going to the following link and selecting your station.  Data each month are updated within a week if data for the previous month made the "top ten."

     NWS Cleveland Unique Local Climate Data

Annual/Yearly Records...

Records that encompass yearly totals such as the wettest/driest/snowiest years on record are again located on our Unique Local Climate Data page.

Other Memorable Weather Events...

View our growing local weather events page highlighted below.

    Local Weather Events & Local Interest Features Page

The publication, StormData, can be found with the National Climate Data Center.

Worldwide Climate Anomalies and Events...        

     Significant Global Climate Extremes and Anomalies 2014

     NCDC 2014 Preliminary Annual Global Climate Report

     NCDC 2014 Preliminary United States Significant Weather and Climate Events

     NCDC 2014 Preliminary State of the Climate - U.S. Summary

          Preliminary data is updated in mid-January to reflect end of the year weather.  The full analysis will be out in spring.

Additional Notes...

     All data are considered preliminary.  The National Climate Data Center finalizes and stores the official record of all of our weather data.

     Period of record are as follows:

     Records data back to 1873 for Erie

                                     1897 for Youngstown

                                     1887 for Canton-Akron

                                     1871 for Cleveland

                                     1873 for Toledo

                                     1916 for Mansfield