PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — You may have seen a few snow squalls across the greater Philadelphia area Tuesday morning, but the city has actually gone a record number of days without significant snowfall.
Six inches of snow fell in Philadelphia in January 2022, but there has been next to nothing ever since. Tuesday’s snow was barely a blip on the radar.
“They’ve just been producing a dusting, if that,” said Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It looks like, at least for the next several days, like this record is just going to keep growing.”
Tuesday marks the 668th consecutive day with less than an inch of snowfall in the city, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 661 days between 1972 and 1973.
Johnson said scientists are not sure if climate change is contributing directly to the lack of snow.
“You’re going to have variability from year to year,” she said, “so without a lot of further in-depth research, it’s really hard to make a straight line from climate change to snowfall in a single season.”
Johnson expects the drought record to continue to climb in the days ahead, though she noted winter doesn’t officially begin until Dec. 21.
“It’s pretty unusual for us to get snow so early, in November, but once we get into December, January, February and March, those tend to be our bigger snow months,” she added.
Despite the lack of snowfall, winter safety precautions should still be followed.
“Make sure you have an emergency kit in your car if you’re traveling any distance during the winter months,” said Johnson. “You just never know when you’re going to encounter some winter weather and some less-than-ideal road conditions.”