One thing I haven't done a good job doing so far this winter is... keeping track of what's happening here in State College, Pennsylvania, home of AccuWeather HQ [Google Map]. And I admit, it's partially because the snowfall this winter has been disappointing here. We've had as much ice (freezing rain/sleet) as snow.

SOME OF MY SNOW/ICE PICS (SEE BELOW FOR LINKS TO ALL):

Winter is always kind of disappointing here, because we tend to accumulate our average 47" of snow each season slowly, with many 2-3 inch events. (I like to say that we're too far east for significant lake-effect and too far west for significant snow from Nor'easters). But I really think we've had more ice than usual this year (since no one maintains ice records separately from snow, I have no way of proving that).

To try to look at things scientifically, I downloaded the data from Penn State's climo station which we copy to AccuWeather.com (I trust PSU more than our local airport, which isn't even manned overnight, and there are no official government historical stations in Central PA as I've noted before). I then added my own observations and examined the period of November and December. Here's what I found:

- Since November 15th... we've had 42 out of 46 days with either a trace of snow, ice or snow and ice cover. That's pretty impressive, but is a testament to the amount of ice, which melts slower. The longest period was 24 days, November 16th to December 9th, the long Northeast cold outbreak that I talked about yesterday.

- Despite that, our total snowfall for the two-month period was only 2.5 inches, according to me. I don't believe that we saw more than an inch of snow or ice during any particular day (see graph above, Trace is exaggerated to 0.05" so it would show up). PSU, who combines snow and sleet and measures more liberally, says 7.8 inches. The average for the 2-month period is over 10 inches. Even PSU admitted: December and the season so far rank the 78th snowiest (out of 113 years). The "major" events are listed below:

- Nov. 9th: First Trace of Snow - Nov. 21st: First Significant Snow (Dusting) - Nov. 24th: An Inch of Sleet, An Inch of Snow, FIrst Ground Covering - Nov. 27th: White Thanksgiving (Photos From 11/26) - Dec. 11th: Moderate Freezing Rain Followed by Dusting of Snow (Photos 12/11 & 12/12) - Dec. 19th: Heavy Freezing Rain after Sleet, Snow (Photos) - Dec. 21st: Another Dusting of Snow (Photos) - Dec. 24th: Heavy Freezing Rain Melts Ground Snow/Ice (Photos) - Dec. 25th: White Christmas In Milesburg, PA (but not here)

You can download the spreadsheet here, which I have added some columns to:

JSNO: My estimate of snowfall for each date, based on memory (and a ruler if it's over 2 inches). JICE: My estimate of freezing rain + sleet for each date, based on memory (and a ruler if it's over 2 inches). JCVR: My estimate of the maximum snow cover each day (at any time of day) based on my webcam archives. Does NOT include cover from shoveling or plowing - must be naturally occurring). PHOTOS: Links to any photos I've taken of the events COMMENTS: Comments about significant events.

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