BLI snowman

I would definitely miss the trees, although there is a certain beauty to the wide open plains (and the unobstructed sunsets/sunrises). Rapid City has a bit of both worlds with the Black Hills and the plains/badlands starting nearby. I don't think the job market is as strong, though.

Pretty sure it's a Biden joke.

Can't even root for the L without our 1st rounder.

Interestingly, some of those winters still hold up for warmth in large swaths of the country. The super Nino in 1877-78 produced some pretty incredible extremes in the upper Midwest. It's still the warmest winter on record for the Twin Cities https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/1877_1878_winter.html Then the major Ninas in 1879-80 and 1889-90 both produced some of the most extreme SE ridging on record. Basically encompassed the entire Eastern seaboard for long stretches of those DJFs.

That 1880 storm in Norcal actually occurred in late April, at the tail end of another insane strong Nina storm season in 1879-80. https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/the-great-california-storm-of-april-1923-1880.html

Dumping right now. Should easily eclipse a half inch for the day here soon.

Me too. The records we do have all paint a pretty astounding picture, though. Astoria had a 28.2 monthly mean in January, Fort Yamhill near McMinnville had a 23.9 monthly mean, Fort Vancouver had a 21.3 monthly mean, and Fort Dalles had a 10.9 monthly mean. All of these blow away their modern records.

I'll go with 1861-62 and 1915-16. Old!

It's very hard for us to sustain major cold anomalies for more than a month. Plenty of Januaries that delivered something following a November event, though. The chances of a historic January are always low regardless.

Depends what you mean by major. 2010-11 had a subsequent arctic airmass in February. 2006-07 had one in January. 1996-97 had a very similar pattern repeat in late December. 1985-86 had a fake cold December and then a very active February. 1978-79 stayed frigid through early February. 1959-60 had major snows in January and March. 1946-47 had subsequent airmasses in January. 1921-22 stayed cold throughout. 1911-12 had a subsequent airmass in early January. 1900-01 had a very snowy January. 1896-97 had subsequent airmasses in January and March. 1887-88 had an epic January. 1872-73 and 1859-60 both had very cold Decembers. So it's actually much more common to see follow up events than not after a November cold/snow event.

Pretty insane that it would be drier out in Klamath Falls.

I'm not sure the early February 2019 stuff would have transpired much differently a few weeks earlier. The post February 15 stuff would have been significantly colder, but that stretch was also very dry for most of the northern part of region so if anything the jet suppression would have been even more noteworthy with colder air.

Right, we could have easily see a colder, more active season and not see anything nearly as impressive as February's winter storm. Last winter was basically a 1997-98 redux for the region, a fluky one and done.

It's funny because we are incredibly overdue for a major regional arctic airmass. 2013-14 really still is the last one to date. But we're almost equally overdue for a regional P.O.S. The 2014-16 Nino still represents the last legitimate regional dud, since the January 2020 event was a little too nice north of Seattle. Maybe we'll just stay in this sort of in-between stage for awhile longer, where decent events happen every winter but major airmasses are a thing of the past.

I bet B.C. does better than last winter, at least.