Our third consecutive La Nina may be ending. What does that mean for North Carolina?
30 January 2023
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – “Snow! It won’t be long before we’ll all be there with snow! Snow! …. I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow!”
Channel your inner Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney and sing, because you also may be dreaming of a winter wonderland, emphasis on dreaming.
OK, we know if you live in Boone or Banner Elk, you’ve seen snow this season. For the rest of us, we need a reminder of what that white stuff feels like. Hence, that song from “White Christmas.”
Snow in downtown Greensboro — but not so far this winter. (WGHP)
We are reaching the last day of January, and there has been no snow in Greensboro this month. The groundhog may not see his shadow, but it won’t be because his burrow is snowed in.
Did you know that in the years since 2018, Greensboro has had a total of less than a foot of snow?
That’s right, there were 8.2 inches of snow that fell last winter – all of it in January and nothing measurable in December 2021 or February 2022 – and then 1.2 inches in 2021 and 2 inches in 2020. There was no measurable snowfall in 2019. Total: 11.4 inches.
Oddly on Dec. 9, 2018, more snow than that fell at once: about 12.8 inches in Greensboro, 14.5 inches in Winston-Salem and 11 inches in High Point and Burlington, to show some variance.
That year, more than 2 feet (25.3 inches) fell in Greensboro, the fifth snowiest year on record.
For the record, the region averages about 8 inches a year, and the most snow ever to fall in a calendar year in Greensboro is 32.5 inches. That was in 1927, the same year Babe Ruth set a record with 60 home runs. So Snowmass, we aren’t.
Don’t get your hopes up that you can go sledding anytime soon. WGHP Chief Meteorologist Van Denton says there is almost no chance for snow in the coming days. And he says barren years aren’t as rare as you would think.
In fact, for three years, from 1990 to ‘92, there wasn’t any snow at all, following three years when there was nearly 4 feet total.
Denton tracked snowfall by decades that show the 1960s were the heaviest, with 14.5 inches per year, followed by the 1980s (10.8 inches). The 1990s had the least (3.9 inches per year).
WGHP’s Van Denton tracked snowfall in Greensboro through the decades. (FACEBOOK)
But if you’re watching his forecast: February starts Wednesday, and that could be a better chance for snow, he said.
Meanwhile, you might try Beech Mountain. They can make snow if it’s not falling from the clouds.