While we are just starting to get out of the haze of Thanksgiving dinner and thinking about getting that Christmas tree up and lighting the Menorah, it’s time to talk about winter snow.
Last year was a particularly snowless winter. What’s to come this year? Will it be a white Christmas? We checked in on a number of sources to get the low down on if the snow will come down. And as your might expect everyone has a slightly different take on their 2023-2024 weather predictions.
AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said that El Niño will have a major impact on winter outcomes for much of the United States, mixing things up a bit from last year. Predicted snowfall for New York City this winter is about 18-26 inches. Compare that with last year when a measly 2.3 inches fell. The average is 29.8 inches so while they are predicting a little less snow than average we will get a lot more than last year.
“This winter's weather in the Northeast is expected to be much different than last winter across most of New England and the mid-Atlantic,” Lada writes.
Buffalo has already seen some significant snowfall with some areas around the city seeing upwards of 2 feet of snow! And that was before November even ended.
A NOAA map (see below) shows a little above average precipitation levels for this coming 2023-2024 winter.
According to website nynjpaweather.com, figuring out the 2023-2024 winter forecast is tricky. For our area the website says that weather patterns “suggest a mix of snow, ice, and rain storms this winter that could lead to some locations with well-above-average snowfall and others below-normal based on the impacts of one or two winter storms.” Overall the weather website says Long Island should see 20 to 40 inches of snowfall, which they say is above average of 15 to 30 inches.
The Farmers Almanac put out their predictions saying that we will experience the opposite of last year with “lots of rain/sleet and snowstorms to contend with.”
Not to be confused with The Farmers Almanac, The Old Farmer’s Almanac says we will have a mildly snowy winter.
Winter officially starts on December 21st. We will be watching and waiting to see how much snow we get this season but to be safe we already have our ice melt, winter gloves and shovels ready just in case.
