Despite bitter cold, another least-snowiest season as winter comes to a close

It’s been a wild ride as far as winter has been concerned across Mid-Missouri. In just a matter of three months, the region has experienced record breaking cold, warmth, lack of snow and a growing drought. While the winter started off on a mild note, record-breaking cold spilled into the lower 48. This brought Mid-Missouri one of the coldest starts to a year ever recorded.

With Arctic air maintaining a grip on most of the nation, northwesterly flow aloft continued to pull in more dry air into Mid-Missouri. With plenty of dry air in place, any clipper system that tracked into the area ultimately ran out of steam or dissipated. It’s one of the reasons we saw another least-snowiest season across Mid-Missouri.

As the Arctic continues to warm, this displaces the coldest air to the south and leads to wild swings in temperatures. This is exactly what occurred this year across the region, as nearly equal days were spent with below or above seasonal values. Only a handful of days this winter saw temperatures near seasonal values.

This wild swing in temperatures from record lows to near record warmth, led to an overall seasonal winter with fairly dry conditions. As we transition into spring, more wild swings of weather is expected to occur, as winter and spring battle it out. While this year will close out as one of the least-snowiest on record, don’t count out the possibility for more snow as we head into March.

March is typically known as a transition month between seasons, with record-breaking heat followed by the potential for snow. In fact, the snowiest month ever recorded in Mid-Missouri occurred in March of 1960, where just over 2 feet of snow fell.

Stay with ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather as we continue to monitor the changing seasons and follow us on Twitter @ABC17Stormtrack.