As winter nears, snow is the forgotten precipitation along East Coast

A historic snow drought is ongoing from Virginia to New York

By Ian Livingston
November 28, 2023 at 10:45 a.m. EST



Times Square is covered by snow during a nor'easter in Manhattan on Jan. 29, 2022. (Jeenah Moon/For The Washington Post)

From southern Virginia to New York City, nearly two years have elapsed since the last time an inch or more of snow fell on a calendar day. In several locations, the snow drought is the longest on record. The lack of snow has occurred during abnormally warm winters and amid a trend toward declining amounts of snow — both probable consequences of human-caused climate change.

New York’s Central Park received an inch of snow on one calendar day 652 days ago, its longest streak without that much snow in records dating to 1869. In the Washington region, Dulles International Airport has a similar record-long streak ongoing.

[ Inside a historically snowless winter in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast ]

Even typically cold and snowy places in the parts of the Northeast are not receiving the amount of snow to which they are accustomed. Boston and Pittsburgh, for example, have not recorded more than 3 inches of snow on a calendar day in almost two years.

The burning question is whether these streaks of snowlessness will end in the weeks and months ahead.

{snip}



Snowfall compared to normal in 2022-2023. (Ian Livingston/The Washington Post)

{snip}

By Ian Livingston
Ian Livingston is a forecaster/photographer and information lead for the Capital Weather Gang. By day, Ian is a defense and national security researcher at a D.C. think tank. Twitter https://twitter.com/islivingston