By: NATALIE WEGER
Capital News Service
As the cherry blossoms bloom and the days grow longer, Marylanders face the end of the winter season. This past winter brought about 13 inches of snow and temperatures dipping down to the single digits.
But how did this year’s Maryland winter compare to those in the past?
Capital News Service analyzed the state’s winter snow and temperatures over past decades. For the purpose of this analysis, Maryland winter is defined as December to March.
Here’s what we found.
How have Maryland winter temperatures changed over the years?
This past winter marked the coldest season the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport national weather station has reported in six years.
BWI reported the average temperature between December and March so far as 39.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Last winter, the average temperature was 42.9 degrees. And six winters ago, the average temperature reached 38.5 degrees.
Despite this year’s cold winter, all 48 contiguous states across the nation have experienced winter warming throughout the past few decades.
Average winter temperatures across the 48 states have increased by about 3 degrees since 1896, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency’s website stated that the increase, which aligns with reductions to snow and ice season, can generally be attributed to global warming.
“The same general trend that we’ve seen is still present,” Alfredo Ruiz-Barrada, an associate research professor in the University of Maryland’s atmospheric and oceanic science department said. “The trends in temperature are increasing.”
When does Maryland typically see the most snowfall?
Although January is nationally known as the snowiest month, BWI has recorded February as the snowiest month in Maryland over the past two decades.
Since the winter of 2004-2005, the weather station has recorded about 140 inches of total snowfall in February and around 130 inches in January.
February often sees the most snowfall in Maryland because it’s the state’s coldest month, according to James Hyde, a manager from the University of Maryland’s atmospheric and oceanic science department. The state sees more snowfall in February because of influences from the Atlantic Ocean, he explained.
What has Maryland snowfall looked like over the past two decades?
Maryland has seen a handful of blizzards over the past two decades.
The most notable was in February 2010, when a snowstorm dubbed the “Snowmageddon” made history as it swept over the East Coast. The blizzard, which produced over 32 inches of snow, was the heaviest single-snowfall recorded by the Washington Dulles International Airport weather station.
But this past winter, BWI only recorded around 9 inches of snow in January and around 4 inches of snow in February. Still, this is the most snow that Marylanders have seen in three years. In the winter of 2021-2022, BWI reported roughly 14 inches of snow.
It is difficult to predict when the next blizzard will hit Maryland, since temperature and humidity conditions have to be just right, according to Ruiz-Barradas.
Yet Hyde said there is good chance another blizzard will hit Maryland within the next decade. Although Maryland has gotten “less snowy” since the 1800s, he said, big blizzards typically still occur every five to seven years.
The area is also seeing a gradual decrease in “minor events,” or two- to six-inch snowstorms, Hyde said.
