Source: Weather Prediction Center at the National Weather Service

Snowfall Maps Show Major Shortfalls in Northeast and Great Lakes States in Recent Winters

5 min readFeb 16, 2023

Brace yourself, snow lovers, especially in New England.

“Northeast and Great Lakes snow fans, look away!” the Weather Prediction Center at the National Weather Service tweeted yesterday. An analysis of the “cumulative snowfall departure from average since October 2019 … shows where there have been consistently lean snowfall winters recently, despite occasional big storms mixed in.”

Connecticut tops the list of states with the largest below-average snowfall total from Oct. 1, 2019, through yesterday afternoon, the center says. Snowfall was 75.9 inches below average there.

Extreme Snowfall in New England Led by Mount Washington in N.H.

The five other New England states are also in the top 10 in the lower 48:

— №2 Rhode Island: 68 inches below average.
— №3 Massachusetts: 66.5 inches below average.
— №5 New Hampshire: 55.7 inches below average.
— №8 Maine: 50.7 inches below average.
— №10 Vermont 46.2 inches below average.

Memories of the “Crippling” Blizzard of February 1978 in the Northeast

The news isn’t any better for some New England states when you look at the 2022–23 season so far (Oct. 1 through Feb. 15), the Weather Prediction Center says.

“It’s been snowy in California and much of the Intermountain West, with a lack of snow continuing in much of the Northeast,” the center tweeted.

Connecticut leads the pack again, with a snowfall total 27.9 inches below average. Rhode Island’s snowfall was 26.1 inches below average (No. 2 on the list). Massachusetts ranked third: 23.1 inches below average.

“Aroostook County is known as the “Crown” of #Maine. We really do look like we are wearing a Crown in this 2022–2023 Snowfall Departure from Average map from
@NWSWPC.” Source: Weather Prediction Center at the National Weather Service and the weather service office in Caribou, Maine

The lack of snow in most of the Northeast is understandable, partly because of the unusually warm weather this cold season.

A Super Warm January 2023 in New England and the Northeast

Indeed, a record high temperature of 57 degrees was set for Feb. 15 in Burlington, Vermont, according to the weather service office based there. The previous record was 54 in 2006. Records date back to 1884.

And it felt like late April yesterday in Bennington, Vermont, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, among other locations, the weather service in Albany, New York, tweeted. It was the warmest day since Nov. 12.

Record Warmth, Record Cold, Now Record Warmth in New England and the Northeast

However, it’s been quite snowy in Caribou in northern Maine. Snowfall was 10.9 inches above average from Dec. 1, 2022, through early Feb. 11, 2023, totaling 82.1 inches, the weather service office there tweeted.

“Warm winters do NOT equate to snow-starved winters at these northern latitudes!” the office said.

Meanwhile, it may be colder than normal from Feb. 21 to March 1 and there’s a “slight risk” of heavy snow in much of the Northeast on Feb. 23–24 and Feb. 26–28, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

“Mid-level low pressure over eastern Canada favors an active northern stream, with the potential for multiple storm systems to track across the northern tier of the CONUS. While there has been considerable run to run variability, models have appeared to key in on a potential system early in week-2, followed by another near the end of February. Each of these has the potential to bring a swath of wintry weather stretching from the Northern Plains through the Northeast.” Source: NOAA Climate Prediction Center

More images, including ones covering today’s expected record or near-record high temperatures, yesterday’s warmth, a winter storm tomorrow, a snowfall forecast map for the Northeast, potential storms later this month and northern lights (aka aurora borealis) from Mount Washington in New Hampshire: