IEM Daily Feature
Sunday, 17 March 2013

Blizzard Warning Climatology

Posted: 17 Mar 2013 03:55 PM

Blizzard Warnings are in effect over far northern Iowa for Monday thanks to a quick moving storm system that will dump snow and then blow it around a bunch. Are blizzard warnings common as we are mere days from spring? The featured chart attempts to provide a climatology of blizzard warnings in the continental US by week of the year. The unit is the combination of a single NWS weather forecast office issuing a blizzard warning for a given week of the year. For example, the peak value in late December represents, on average, seven NWS offices issuing at least one blizzard warning per year. The chart shows a remarkable drop during the heart of winter in January. The reason for this drop is that blizzard systems are driven by large temperature gradients and amble supplies of moisture, both of which are somewhat limited in January as most the country is at its coldest.

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Tags:   blizzard   nws