CINCINNATI — April 18 is here and while it may not seem too significant at first, it's the last date where we have an average snowfall (0.1") on the calendar for a "winter" season.
The next day that we have an average snowfall is October 21. While we could still potentially see snow again — the latest measurable snowfall on record was May 6 in 1989 with 0.2" — it is likely that we are done with the winter weather for the season. So how did the winter of 2022-2023 fare?
Lets first check back to the forecast from August 16, 2022 for the winter season.
It is still too early to know if we will definitively see a La Niña this winter, but if we do, I would suspect that we see a warmer than normal winter with below normal snowfall.
Here is a look at the video forecast for that date:
While the winter months are defined as December, January and February, we can see snow in the Tri-State from October through April.
When it comes to snowfall, the seasonal average for Cincinnati is 23.3 inches over the last 30 years. We will use the winter months to define the average temperature, which equates to 33.9°. These numbers will be our comparison points.
The winter of 2022-2023 finished with a snow total of 14.4", which is nearly nine inches below normal. This made it the third winter out of the last four to finish with less than 15 inches of snow. The 2019/2020 season brought only 11.2", 2021/2022 saw 13.3" and of course this year's 14.4".
The average temperature for the winter months was 38.6°, which wasn't just above normal by 4.7°, but also finished as the eighth warmest winter we have ever recorded in Cincinnati.
The current ENSO outlook for the winter of 2023/23 looks like we will be in an El Niño phase. Climatologically that leads to a drier and warmer winter in the Ohio River Valley, but we will have a bigger look at that as we get through summer and have a clearer view of what phase we will actually fall into.
