by Mika Hughes
Originally set for January 29, New York has officially broken its record for latest measurable snowfall this year, now set for February 1. Although we have gotten some light flurries, we haven’t really gotten much snow overall. So how exactly does Irvington’s amount of snowfall now, compare to how much we got last year?
Irvington’s winter this year has been fairly cool, staying mostly in the 40s and 50s and occasionally dipping down into the 30s. There have been rare occasions when both the high and low temperatures dip down into the teens and single digits, but again, it’s extremely rare.
What does this mean for snow? Because a majority of the days are above freezing, the snow we should be getting falls as rain instead. And because none of the days are cold enough to support a full snowstorm, we’ve been getting sporadic flurries that melt very quickly. On February 1, the entire day was below freezing, so the little snow we got (~0.4 inches) was able to last without melting. So far, we haven’t been able to have snow last for more than a few days.
Last winter, the first snow flurries happened in November, meaning the temperature dropped to near freezing by that time. Also, the temperature was still in the 60s and 70s. The first recordable snowfall was on Christmas Eve, with 0.5 inches of snow. The majority of the winter was full of snowstorms, totaling up to 6 inches of snowfall. But mostly, it consisted of rain that turned into ice, causing the roads to become extremely icy due to numerous cold fronts.
This warm temperature and lack of snow we have been seeing could potentially be because this year is an El Niño (as opposed to last year being an El Niña year). Despite this, hopefully we will be able to get some snow along with winter this year.
