Southern Illinois has managed to be strategically located enough of a distance from the low in several major snow events in 2010 to avoid the blizzard like conditions many have experienced, with a total of twelve inches falling on the region in January and February, and below average temperatures, the region has not escaped untouched.
While many dreamed of a white Christmas, December received no measurable snowfall. January saw seven and one half inches of snow, and February has thus far accumulated four and one half inches. And don't put those snow shovels away just yet. According to the Southern Illinois Airport Weather Service, there is a chance of another snow/rain event beginning on Friday, moving in from the SouthWest. Highs are not expected to climb out of the thirties for the weekend.
The National Weather Service of Paducah reported that we have been sitting in a cold pattern for several weeks, which has led to the unusually cold weather. Average highs for February are mid to upper forties. Record rainfall was 17.3 inches in January 1950 and snowfall was 28.3 inches in January of 1977.
Forty-nine of the fifty states have snow, including Hawaii. Florida is the only state that remains untouched by snowfall, but they, too, have experienced below average temperatures this winter season which sent fruit growers scrambling to protect their threatened fruit crops.
According to Jeff Armit of Southern Illinois Airport Weather Service extremes happen from year to year, and it is impossible to draw conclusions from a single year's weather activity. Whether the climactic changes can be attributed to global warming will remain to be seen. In fifty or one hundred years, meteorologists and scientists will be able to look back and prove or disprove global warming, meanwhile we know that, obviously, weather patterns are changing.
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Southern Illinois has managed to be strategically located enough of a distance from the low in several major snow events in 2010 to avoid the blizzard like conditions many have experienced, with a total of twelve inches falling on the region in January and February, and below average temperatures, the region has not escaped untouched.
While many dreamed of a white Christmas, December received no measurable snowfall. January saw seven and one half inches of snow, and February has thus far accumulated four and one half inches. And don't put those snow shovels away just yet. According to the Southern Illinois Airport Weather Service, there is a chance of another snow/rain event beginning on Friday, moving in from the SouthWest. Highs are not expected to climb out of the thirties for the weekend.
The National Weather Service of Paducah reported that we have been sitting in a cold pattern for several weeks, which has led to the unusually cold weather. Average highs for February are mid to upper forties. Record rainfall was 17.3 inches in January 1950 and snowfall was 28.3 inches in January of 1977.
Forty-nine of the fifty states have snow, including Hawaii. Florida is the only state that remains untouched by snowfall, but they, too, have experienced below average temperatures this winter season which sent fruit growers scrambling to protect their threatened fruit crops.
According to Jeff Armit of Southern Illinois Airport Weather Service extremes happen from year to year, and it is impossible to draw conclusions from a single year's weather activity. Whether the climactic changes can be attributed to global warming will remain to be seen. In fifty or one hundred years, meteorologists and scientists will be able to look back and prove or disprove global warming, meanwhile we know that, obviously, weather patterns are changing.
