All Over Albany

This was the warmest, least snowy winter on record

This winter's daily snowfall total through February compared to the 30-year normal daily total.

The (meteorological) winter that just ended was the warmest, least snowy on record in Albany, according to the local office of the National Weather Service.

The average temperature for this past December, January, and February was 33.4 degrees -- that's 7.8 degrees higher than normal, and .7 degrees higher than the old record set in 1931-1932. (Temperature records date back 1820.)

The total snowfall for those three months was just 10.3 inches -- 33.5 inches less than the 30-year normal for that period. The total just dipped below the old record of 10.9 inches set in 1936-1937. (Records date back to to 1884-1885.)

(Even with the low snow total, this area wasn't short on precipitation. The Albany area got 8.98 inches of rain from December through February, which is more than a inch above the normal level.)

The NWS Albany office also reported this week that this past meteorological winter had the most number of days with high temps above 50 degrees -- 24 days total -- of any winter on record (since 1874). The previous record had been 17 in 2001-2002.

And this snowfall season -- October through May -- is still in the running for least snowiest ever. We're currently at 10.3 inches since last summer (36.6 inches off the normal pace). The record is 13.8 inches, set in 1912-1913 (dating back to 1884-1885).