The nearby SNOTEL only getting down to 31°F that day confirms it's illegitimate.

Didn't that happen to a much more dramatic extent down there in Dec 2022? I recall places rapidly dropping from warm 40s rain to mid 20s with snow down there in that event.

February had more snow. Snow totals matter more to me than cold anomalies. The 12/21/2020 event, even if small, was epic. Watching warm rain (something I hate in winter) turn to accumulating snow was very satisfying. It's too bad your area seems to have missed out on it.

I think the issue might be that Dec was better here than what you had in 2021-22, and you probably had more snow in Feb 2021 than I did. Even at that the cold lasted way longer in 2021-22.

Are you sure. We had the really nice cold and snowy period in Dec 2021 that left snow on the ground for days, many days where snow fell, and solidly cold temps. Nothing like that in 2020-21 other than the brief February event. I would take 2021-22 any day over the previous winter.