This winter has been pretty weak by buffalo standards. Season snowfall totals continue to lag well behind normal. There have been a few shots of cold air, but nothing that’s really lasted.
Many are asking, where IS that real winter weather?
To answer, let’s bring in an index developed by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center called the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI). The name is lengthy, but the index is actually pretty simple. It uses three main pillars of winter to define the severity of the season relative to the city experiencing it:
Based on those three factors, the index calculates an accumulating number to quantify the severity of winter and ranks the season into one of five severity levels: mild, moderate, average, severe and extreme.
It should come as no surprise that this year, most of the eastern United States is experiencing a “mild” winter. Very few locations are fighting a “severe” or “extreme” season, and those that are in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest.
AWSSI values have been calculated for winters going all the way back to 1950, which provides a unique way to see how winters fared throughout the country during the past 70 years.
Any guesses on the most “severe” winter for Buffalo? Watch this week’s Heather’s Weather Whys for the answer.
New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening. You can also watch it on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on Channel 2 News.
If you have a weather question for Heather to answer, send it to her at heather.waldman@wgrz.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.
