Students are ready to toss their gloves and Uggs in favor of shorts and flip-flops. The winter of 2008 is on the fast track to becoming one of the snowiest winters in N.H. history.
Many Plymouth students and New Englanders share those same sentiments. Even the craziest of snow lovers are ready to be done with this extended winter season, “I am ready for spring! I hate the snow! I am sick so sick of it.” Jessica Lyons said while working in the HUB on another snowy Monday last week. While Plymouth is used to seeing a lot of snow compared to other parts of the region, this season has been nothing but historic.
Unofficially in Plymouth, on campus, approximately 106″ of snow has fallen this season. Carlo Falco, meteorology major has been diligently measuring after each and every storm and reporting those totals to the regional National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine. Just outside of town and off campus, that seasonal snow total is even more due to the higher elevation.
At Concord Airport, where much of the state’s climate data is recorded, another record was broken last Friday [more snow fell this year than any other year since 1900!] The spring snow event that affected the region March 28 dropped 2.8″ of snow, bringing Concord up to 115.2″ inches of snow for the 2007-2008 winter season. Many other areas shoveled out significantly more with that March 28 snowfall. Another system on March 31 brought that total up by another fraction of an inch to 115.8″.
Currently, Concord, N.H. has one more record to break for the all time snowiest winter since 1873-1874, which is 122″. Will we see that record being broken? Not this week, but snow is certainly not uncommon in New Hampshire through mid-April.
Concord is where the longest lasting climate data has been measured in the state and it continues to be located there even though there are younger climate reporting stations in the region.
The crazy winter weather pattern is mostly being blamed on a La Niña cycle, which is a periodic cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. That cooling can have effects on weather patterns around the world. The opposite of La Niña is El Niño, when warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean configures worldwide differently than those of La Niña.A La Niña pattern forces a storm track closer to New England and allows abundant moisture to be picked up from the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, when storms ride across the country or up the east coast.
However, this winter has seen its share of benefits, “It was probably great for everyone who skis,” said student Markus Auwaerter, as he trudged through the wet, pasty snow when being asked about his thoughts on the winter. This ski season has proved to be one of the longest lasting and best ski seasons in years at nearly all nearby mountains. After a sub-par season last year, many mountains have made up financially for last year and this year. A strong maple-sugaring season is also underway as late winter conditions have been nearly ideal. Snowmobile trails have also seen an extended season due to a lasting snow cover.
Currently, there is a lot of residual snow cover on the ground, even though the Plymouth area has seen some melting in the past few weeks. The region will need several warm, sunny days and cool nights with little rain for many weeks to see a gradual melt and lower the risk of spring flooding.
Latest snow cover analysis for northern New England shows that the snow cover still has between eight and fifteen inches of liquid water equivalent in it. That means that when a core sample of the snow cover is taken and melted down, that is how much liquid is present. All of that snow still needs to melt and with flooding situations in the past few years it is a fact that many residents around the state are on guard for flooding.
Another record that was also broken back in February was the nearly nine inches of liquid equivalent that fell during that month in Concord. It was either in the form of rain or snow but all melted down.Spring will make its way here sooner or later. In the meantime think warm thoughts and practice patience when it comes to the last signs of winter melting away.