New England's snowless on December 13
UPDATE: The NWS in State College has confirmed that our seasonal snow total so far at Penn State (a "trace") is a new record. There was never a winter here with just a trace of snow before January 1st.
There's no secret that this month has had record-breaking high temperatures across the nation (this animation from CoolWx.com shows records set or tied from Dec. 7 to Dec. 15).
This warm month is in the double digits compared to normal in the Northeast!
What's the result of all that warmth? An astonishing lack of snowcover. During the period of record for the NOHRSC's snow coverage maps (13 years now), New England has never been as snowless as it is this year on Dec. 13. Here's a GIF animation:
Another way to look at the data is to ask what percentage of the region was covered by snow on Dec. 13 each year? Voila, a pie chart of snow cover percentage (blue) versus no snow (orange):
The average of the previous 12 years for "no snow" was 25% -- yet 2015 is 97%! The previous NOHRSC record was 56% snowless versus 2015's 97%!
As if that's not incredible enough, Christmas Day looks to be even warmer in the East, with record temperatures possible! This will wipe out any chance of a white Christmas for most of the eastern half of the nation. There are a lot of maps showing how extreme this is; here are a couple. The first one shows a departure of over 16 degrees Celsius - that's over 28 degrees Fahrenheit!
