Inauguration Day Weather

Some of you have asked about the forecast for Washington, DC today and for Tuesday’s big event.  Here you go:

Today: Light snow with highs in the mid 30s.
Tonight: Snow early, then mostly cloudy with lows in the mid 20s.
Tuesday: Sun & Clouds with a high in the low 30s.

The rest of the week looks calm in case you’re wanting to stick around and enjoy all the treasures of our nation’s capitol.

Let’s take a moment to look back at Inauguration Day Weather:

The warmest was in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was sworn in.  The high was 55 degrees with cloudy skies.  The coldest, amazingly, was 4 years later, with Reagan again.  The high that day was a cold 7 degrees!

The snowiest days a President took the oath were in 1961 and 1909.  In 1961 John F. Kennedy was sworn in with 8 inches of snow on the ground.  Another snowy day was in 1909 for William Taft.  10 inches of snow fell that day.

Here are some normals for January Inaugurations:

*  Normal high temperature for the day is in the low to mid 40’s.
* Normal low temperature for the day is in the mid to upper 20’s.
* Normal weather for the noon hour is about 37°F under a partly cloudy sky with a 10 mph wind.
* There is about a 1 in 6 chance of precipitation during the ceremony.
* There is only about a 1 in 20 chance of snow during the ceremony.
* If it does rain or snow, there is a 4 to 1 chance it will only wet the pavement.
* There is about a 3 out of 10 chance that there will be snow already on the ground from a previous snowfall.

Special thanks to the NWS office in Sterling, VA for these numbers.

I’m Meteorologist Jason Nicholas

A COLD DAY!

I didn’t get a chance to blog last Friday because of the cold weather keeping things in the weather office, fairly busy, but let’s take a glance back at that historic day.

On Friday, January 16, we started the day at -13 degrees.  Again, that’s 13 degrees below zero!    That was the coldest temperature reported at Cleveland since January 19, 1994 when the all time record coldest temperature of -20 degrees was recorded.  However, it didn’t even break a record for that day, amazingly.  That record was set in 1977 when we bottomed out at -15.  Needless to say, this is typically our statistically coldest time of the year.  By the way, we did recover to 2 degrees for a high on Friday.

Hey, this week we may actually get ABOVE the freezing mark.  Heat wave, here we come.  34 is my forecast high for Thursday.

Wishing for warmer weather, I’m Meteorologist Jason Nicholas.

Our First Big Snow Storm!

If you read my previous post from earlier in the week (see below), you knew this was coming…  Our first winter snow storm of the season.  I admit, I might might have jinxed us talking about our favorable “non-snow” storm tracks that we’ve been seeing across Northern Ohio.
This is storm has been a little different.  Obviously, it’s track was farther South than our other storms we’ve seen this season.  That leads to us seeing colder air, and this more snow!  We also were helped by some moisture from the South.  No, not the perfect storm, but certainly a strong one, and undoubtedly, not our last one of the season as we’re only in the middle of January.
While many of us may not welcome to several inches of snow we’re getting on this Saturday, some enjoy it.
See below the snow totals from Saturday morning.  Keep in mind, these are only from about the half way point of the storm.  Check the weather section of our web site for storm totals.

…ASHLAND COUNTY…
ASHLAND 1SW            2.2   900 AM  1/10

…ASHTABULA COUNTY…
PIERPONT 2SE           2.0   900 AM  1/10
ASHTABULA              1.8   900 AM  1/10
ASHTABULA 1SW          1.6   800 AM  1/10
CONNEAUT I-90          1.1  1000 AM  1/10

…CUYAHOGA COUNTY…
BROADVIEW HTS          5.6   900 AM  1/10
CLE AIRPORT            5.6   700 AM  1/10
EUCLID                 5.0  1000 AM  1/10
GARFIELD HTS           5.0   800 AM  1/10
SOLON                  5.0   900 AM  1/10
PEPPER PIKE            4.7   900 AM  1/10
NORTH ROYALTON         4.6   700 AM  1/10
CLEVELAND              4.0   700 AM  1/10
LYNDHURST              3.5   700 AM  1/10
CLEVELAND-EDGEWATER    3.0   900 AM  1/10

…GEAUGA COUNTY…
CHAGRIN FALLS          5.5   900 AM  1/10
CHARDON                5.3   900 AM  1/10
BAINBRIDGE             4.5   900 AM  1/10
CHARDON                4.5  1000 AM  1/10
CLARIDON TWP           4.0   900 AM  1/10
RUSSEL TWP             4.0   600 AM  1/10

…HOLMES COUNTY…
FRYBURG                0.2   900 AM  1/10

…LAKE COUNTY…
LEROY                  4.0   700 AM  1/10
MENTOR                 3.5   700 AM  1/10
WILLOUGHBY             3.5   900 AM  1/10
KIRTLAND               3.2   900 AM  1/10
MENTOR                 3.2   900 AM  1/10
PAINESVILLE TWP.       3.1   800 AM  1/10
CONCORD TWP.           3.0   700 AM  1/10
PERRY TOWNSHIP         3.0   900 AM  1/10
WILLOUGHBY             3.0   800 AM  1/10
MADISON  5 S           2.5   800 AM  1/10
EASTLAKE               2.3   700 AM  1/10
LEROY                  2.0   800 AM  1/10
MADISON                2.0   700 AM  1/10
MADISON-ON-THE-LAKE    1.3  1000 AM  1/10

…LORAIN COUNTY…
CARLISLE TWP           4.8   900 AM  1/10
N RIDGEVILLE           4.7   600 AM  1/10
SHEFFIELD LAKE         3.2   800 AM  1/10
WELLINGTON             3.2   900 AM  1/10

…MEDINA COUNTY…
BRUNSWICK              5.7   700 AM  1/10
HINCKLEY               5.2   900 AM  1/10
MEDINA                 2.0   700 AM  1/10

…PORTAGE COUNTY…
HIRAM                  5.5   900 AM  1/10
KENT                   4.7   800 AM  1/10
RAVENNA 1E             2.7   700 AM  1/10

…RICHLAND COUNTY…
MANSFLD ARPT           1.1   700 AM  1/10

…SANDUSKY COUNTY…
CLYDE                  3.3   700 AM  1/10
FREMONT                3.0   700 AM  1/10

…STARK COUNTY…
MASSILLON/PERRY TWP.   2.2   900 AM  1/10
MASSILLON              2.0   900 AM  1/10
ALLIANCE               1.0   800 AM  1/10

…SUMMIT COUNTY…
BATH TWP               7.3  1000 AM  1/10
TWINSBURG              7.0   900 AM  1/10
BATH                   5.0   900 AM  1/10
TWINSBURG              5.0   900 AM  1/10
SAGAMORE HILLS         4.7   800 AM  1/10
TALLMADGE 2NE          4.4   700 AM  1/10
TALLMADGE              3.9   800 AM  1/10
CAK AIRPORT            0.4   700 AM  1/10

…TRUMBULL COUNTY…
YNG AIRPORT            4.8   700 AM  1/10
NEWTON FALLS           4.7   700 AM  1/10
MESOPOTAMIA            4.5   800 AM  1/10
WARREN                 4.5   700 AM  1/10
WARREN                 4.3   800 AM  1/10

…WAYNE COUNTY…
DOYLESTOWN             3.3   900 AM  1/10
KIDRON 1N              1.5   900 AM  1/10
WOOSTER                0.7   700 AM  1/10
WOOSTER 7N             0.6   700 AM  1/10

Another Non-Snow Winter Storm

So far, this Winter season has been tame.  Now, as I write that, I just know I’m setting us up for one heck of a snowfall event!  While, we’ve had several Winter storms pull through Ohio, snowfall has been at a premium.  See the numbers below for our latest Winter Storm.  Again, this is because of the track of these storms.

We’ve typically been on the warm side of these storms, which favors more rain, freezing rain and sleet.  We only get the snow after the main moisture of the storm has passed us.  Thus, our accumulations are rather weak.  We KNOW this will change, as the storm’s path become more Southern.  We will get our fair share.  And, in most instances, folks prefer the snow to the freezing rain.

…ASHTABULA COUNTY…
ASHTABULA 1SW          0.1

…CUYAHOGA COUNTY…
CLE AIRPORT            0.2

…LAKE COUNTY…
WILLOUGHBY             0.3
…RICHLAND COUNTY…

MANSFLD ARPT           0.8

…SUMMIT COUNTY…
CAK AIRPORT            0.1

…TRUMBULL COUNTY…
YNG AIRPORT            0.1
WARREN                   T