NORFOLK, Va. — While hardware shopping, grabbing a cup of coffee, or even at the courts playing pickleball, I've been asked several times in the past week: "Are we going to get any snow this winter?"
And each time I smile and reply, "That's the million-dollar question! Remember there is still plenty of winter season to go!"
But I do want to dive a little deeper into this topic. We had a really warm stretch of weather last week and many in southeast Virginia and North Carolina can't help but wonder if the threat of snow is done for the season.
Climatologically speaking: no!
We are still well within the window of opportunity for snow in our region. I dug into the climate archives to research late-season snows, and here's what I found.
Looking back at month-by-month data, since 1946, the month that most frequently gets accumulating snow at Norfolk International Airport is January.
While February snow is a little less frequent, it has still occurred many times in the past 78 years. And the snowiest months on record for Norfolk were February 1980 (remember the Circus Blizzard?) when we picked up 18.9 inches and February 1989 when we had the most: a whopping 24.4 inches!
Don't drop your guard heading into March though. We often get snow at the beginning of meteorological spring. In March of 1980, we got another 13.7 inches contributing to our annual snowfall record of 41.9 inches in 1980.
The latest snowfalls of the season have occurred into April. While most occurring that late are lighter, a few season-enders were very significant. The latest of the season to fall in southern Chesapeake was 5.5 inches on March 24, 1940. The heavy snow ended a day later in Elizabeth City adding up to 6.5 inches.
A late season system April 18-19, 1983 moved quickly across North Carolina and Virginia, as the polar jet stream weakened allowing Arctic air to find its way to Hampton Roads. The result was the latest ever snow recorded at Langley in Hampton 6.5 inches, 5 inches reported from Painter on the Eastern Shore, and a heavy dusting for Virginia Beach.
Here's the kicker... there was a strong El Nino in 1983. Our current El Nino will most certainly continue over the coming months.
While we may not have snow in the foreseeable future, based on our history, it's at least possible we could see something over the next two months!