Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The winter of 2022-23 is in the books and what a winter it was.
You can call it historic, long, and maybe even a little strange.
But everyone, including the meteorologists, seem to agree it was memorable. And not just for the amount of snowfall, but when we saw it fall.
And there is this note of caution too, as meteorologists say temperatures won't spring forward too quickly.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jon Hitchcock tells WBEN it was an unusual winter overall. "Over half of our snow is tied up in just two big events, of course, the really big mid-November Lake Effect event and then the blizzard just before Christmas in December," says Hitchcock. He notes the airport weather station recorded 133.3 inches of snow this winter. "That's 44 inches above normal. So if you just look at that number, without thinking about what happened, you'd think it was a very cold and snowy winter. But in reality, the majority of that snow was in just two events. And the rest of the winter was very mild," says Hitchcock.
Meteorologist Andy Parker of 'Ask Andy', says this one won't be forgotten. "It'll all be about the Thanksgiving storm, the blizzard that happened, the earthquake and the ice storm. Those are going to be the moments that define the winter of 2022 and 2023," notes Parker. He says we went into the gray after the blizzard where we we did not see the sun for almost a month during January, then an earthquake and an ice storm in January.
Just because the calendar says spring, Parker says don't expect Mother Nature to cooperate. "If you're hoping Mother Nature's gonna flip a switch and make it warm instantly, that's not on the table," says Parker. While Tuesday and Wednesday will be milder, he says a storm track is going to continue to favor a path right through the Great Lakes and northeast which puts Buffalo, "In kind of the battle zone between winter and spring."
Hitchcock also adds we're not done with snow by a longshot. "We've had snow, at least flakes, in here every single April since we've been keeping records for over 140 years now ... so snow in April is very normal in Western New York," adds Hitchcock.
