Despite recent flurries, winter really just a memory now

Sure there’s still a chill in the air, and there may even have been snow on your windshield Thursday morning. And spring doesn’t officially arrive until March 20.

Daylight Saving Time hasn’t sprung forward yet, and St. Patrick’s Day is still a week away but meteorological winter is already in the record books for 2017-18, the National Weather Service notes.

With March 1 comes the end of meteorological winter, a period defined as covering the months of December through February. For the record, winter 2017-18 was colder than recent winters, but the late surge in unusual late-February warmth enabled most of central Indiana to end up slightly above normal for the winter, generally less than a degree above average.

Overall, winter in central Indiana produced an average temperature of 30.8 degrees (a normal winter is 30.5) with total precipitation of 7.77 inches (8.15 is normal).

A winter with only nine inches of snowfall came up 13 inches shy of the normal 22-inch range for central Indiana, while nine days of below-zero temperatures when the average is just six days provided a reminder it was quite a cold winter at times.

According to National Weather Service records, winter 2017-18 produced no significant all-time numbers, finishing as the 43rd least-snowiest season on record (snowfall records go back to 1884) and 74th warmest (temperature records go back to 1871).

Winter began with a relatively normal December until temperatures turned sharply colder around Christmas Day with the frigid air continuing into January as central Indiana experienced one of the coldest starts to a calendar year on record. Temperatures remained well below freezing through the first week of January. New Year’s Day was the second coldest in recorded history at Indianapolis, eclipsed only by Jan. 1, 1928.

Temperatures would modify the latter part of January, followed by a period of seasonable temperatures into mid-February before a surge of warmth arrived for the second half of February. Record warmth on Feb. 20 saw temperatures surge into the low and mid 70s.

Indianapolis recorded its warmest temperature ever for a February day with a high of 77 degrees.

After experiencing a mixture of precipitation through most of December, primarily snow fell from late December through the first two weeks of January.

Freezing rain and drizzle became more prevalent through the second half of January, including the morning of Jan. 24 when an extended period of freezing drizzle caused substantial impacts on roads during the morning commute across central Indiana.

A transition to a more active and wetter pattern in late February brought heavier rainfall, with much of the area experiencing more than half of its seasonal precipitation during the last 10 days of the month.

Overall snowfall was below normal across central Indiana, and well below normal along the Interstate 70 corridor, including Putnam County and the Indianapolis metro area. Once again, more impactful snowstorms seemed to pass largely north and south of central Indiana through the winter.

The Indianapolis area finished the three-month period with just nine inches of snowfall, less than half of normal for the period. Snowfall totals over northern portions of central Indiana were generally 20-25 inches, much closer to a typical winter season but still below normal.

The following is a review of weather conditions experienced in central Indiana during winter 2017-18:

DECEMBER -- December began with highs in the 50s and 60s the first few days of the month. Highs peaked in the mid 60s across central Indiana on Dec. 4, a solid 20 to 25 degrees above normal. The arrival of a strong cold front late on Dec. 22 and early Dec. 23 ushered in a shift to much colder air that would culminate with one of the coldest finishes to a year in recent memory.

Temperatures fell below 30 degrees on Christmas Eve, then fell below 20 degrees on Christmas Day as a progressively deeper Arctic airmass expanded across central Indiana. The last six days of the month saw much of the area fail to climb above 20 degrees as highs remained in the teens and lows were in the single digits or below zero.

New Year’s Eve was one of the coldest on record with highs only in the single digits and teens, and lows near or below zero. Indianapolis tied its coldest high on record for New Year’s Eve, matching the 11 degrees reached on the final day of the year in 1976.

JANUARY -- 2018 began on a bitterly cold note highlighted by the second coldest New Year’s Day on record for Indianapolis and the coldest start to a year in 90 years. Highs struggled to rise into the single digits after starting the year well below zero.

The average temperature for the first six days of the month at Indianapolis was a brutal 3.2 degrees, marking the coldest start to a year through the first six days on record. Warmer temperatures on Jan. 7 ended a 12-day record stretch dating back to Dec. 26 in which temperatures failed to rise above 20 degrees.

Beginning Jan. 19, the dominant upper-level trough which had enabled repeated shots of bitterly cold air to overspread the eastern U.S. since late December finally relaxed and would not return the rest of the month. The result was near to occasionally above-normal temperatures through the end of January.

Highs flirted with 60 degrees on Jan. 26 as southwest winds brought much warmer air into central Indiana. Arguably, the best weather day of the entire month came just two days later on Jan. 28 as temperatures rose into the 50s under bright, sunny skies.

Indianapolis had subzero lows on eight nights in January, matching 1994 and 2014 for the most subzero January over the last 35 years. The area had 11 subzero nights during winter 2017-18.

FEBRUARY -- February transitioned back to colder weather after a milder finish to January. Highs through much of the first half of the month were routinely in the 20s and 30s with lows in the teens and 20s. The coldest morning came Feb. 5 as lows dropped to near zero in most areas and highs were only in the teens. The colder pattern coincided with the bulk of the snowfall occurring across the region during the first half of February.

The shift back to milder temperatures began on Valentine’s Day as temperatures surged into the 50s, followed by the 60s on the 15th. For the rest of the month, highs were routinely above 50, with a record-breaking surge of warmth Feb. 20.

High temperatures broke the 70-degree mark for the first time in 2018 across much of central Indiana, highlighted by a high of 77 in Indianapolis, establishing the warmest temperature ever recorded in Indianapolis during the month of February. Even more impressive, lows in the low 60s were common on the morning of the 20th. Indianapolis shattered its record warmest low for the date by a whopping 10 degrees.

Looking ahead, the Climate Prediction Center’s official outlook for meteorological spring (March-May) indicates an equal chance of near-, above- or below-normal temperatures. At Indianapolis, the average temperature for the spring season is 52.6 degrees.

The outlook also calls for a greater chance of above-normal precipitation. The average spring season precipitation is 12.42 inches along with 2.8 inches of snowfall, most of which typically falls during March.