Low Snow Winters
Since winter weather records began in 1883, Baltimore has NEVER has a winter void of snow. Only once did the city get less than 1 inch all winter. Only three times has the city has less than 2 inches of snow. If we don’t get any more this season, this would be the fourth winter.
The description ‘low snow’ winter takes on an expanded meaning. A ‘typical’ winter brings around 21 inches of snow to Baltimore. I use the term ‘Low Snow” for winters with less than half of that. I break it down to winters with under 5 inches of snow and between 5 and 10 inches of snow.
I dug through the 137 years of winter snow history in Baltimore and plotted out the results below.
18% Of Winters End Up As Low Snow
Seasonal Snow Under 5 Inches
Seasonal Snow Between 5 and 10 Inches
Low Snow happened 26 times, or 18% of winters. That might be more than many people expect to see.
Extreme weather of this sort has been displayed on occasion and documented since the 1800s.
I wrote an article I wrote a few years ago about snowless Decembers. I that I showed remainder of those winters were near or above normal snow about 50% of the time. There is still reason to keep your Faith in the Flakes*
Lowest Snow Winters in Baltimore
- 0.7″ in the winter of 1949-1950. *The ONLY time a full winter resulted in less than a single inch in Baltimore.
- 1.2″ in 1972-1973
- 2.3″ in 2001-2002
Under 5 inches of snow
Notice the winters fitting this category are evenly scattered throughout the record period since 1883.
Between 5 and 10 inches of snow
14 out of 137 winters fit this category.
- Three winters since 2000
- Two winters in the 1990s.
- Seven winters have between 1883 and 1951.
Pairs of years under 10 inches of snow
There have been two years in a row with low snow occurring 4-Times since 1883. Twice those pairs were followed by one of the top snow winters
- 1888-1889: 9.0″
- 1889-1890: 4.9″
- 1949-1950: 0.7″ *Lowest on record
- 1951-1951: 6.2″
- 2000-2001: 8.7″
- 2001-2002: 2.3″
This was followed by out third highest snow total of 58.1″ in 2002-2003
- 2007-2008: 8.5″
- 2008-2009: 9.1″
This was followed by the most snow on record: 77″ in 2009-2010
