The whole run starting with the Jan 96 snow storm then all of the hurricanes Bertha, Fran, bonnie, floyd plus the early 2000s winter stretch is why I'm here. What a time to be a weather nerd
We got the shaft in the Triad from that one. But at least March 2009 delivered!Absolutely. Jan 09 is also really special to me because it was the drought buster storm and also the last one I got to enjoy with my dad. Nothing like doing donuts on snow covered country roads with your old man.
It’s not just you noticing this. I have as well. I mentioned this in another thread but my theory on this is that the data that’s going into these forecast models is lacking or just not entirely accurate. As more and more government agencies around the world see their budgets tighten, I think they are not getting as much human gathered raw data and depending more on other resources.
We had snow in 1989 and in 1991 down here. The 1991 event was supposed to be bigger, but we never really got the rates with it. The 1989 snow came at the end of an ice event and if I remember right, it did not make it to Charlotte. Both of these events dropped less than 1 inch here but were measurable.
The 1989 miss was rough too, but I knew all along we never really had a chance with it. We were supposed to get around an inch in 1992 and saw nothing.
If you’re referring to the early December 1989 event, it did make it to CLT. Officially the airport had .4” from it, but the entire northern half of Mecklenburg and most of Cabarrus county county got 1-2”… areas further east ended up getting more. January 1991 was forecasted to give CLT 6-8” and it actually started off looking strong… there was a good burst of snow that quickly put down around .5” but then the rates slowed big time changing it to rain. the heavier precip stayed just south in the eastern Upstate… those areas ended up getting a couple inches. If it weren’t for those two events, CLT would have officially gone from 2/23/1989 to 3/13/1993 without recording measurable snow
That was a crazy stretch too, especially 1989. We had severe weather here in early April 1989 too, with Greenville SC getting hit hard. Then of course Chesnee SC and north Cleveland County on May 5. Union County NC got a strong tornado earlier that day and had another one around 7pm I think. Hugo was actually supposed to track about 20-30 miles farther west I think and be a few hours slower. He ended up giving us winds to around 50-55 in gusts, but of course Charlotte got it much worse.
I remember the first talk of a significant hit for the CLT area with Hugo was actually first mentioned by Eric Thomas on the 6am newscast on the morning of the 9/21/1989. In those days he was actually an Accuweather Meteorologist who was assigned to WBTV and they were the first to mention 60-80mph gusts for the Charlotte. Then by 6pm that evening, all the local TV mets were very direct about how strong the storm would still be because at that point it had reached category 4, it had a huge wind field, and was already moving over 20mph. No one was buying into though until the first rain bands reached CLT and were producing 50mph gusts.
www.businessinsider.com
These articles speaking of permanence seem to have one motivating factor. This particular article focuses on the northern tier of the country. I know the upper Midwest and plains haven’t done well this year, but how did they do last season? Minneapolis, for instance, had 19.3 inches in December 2022, 22 inches in January 2023, and 15.5 inches in February 2023, all well above average. After one bad season, the author tries to frighten and motivate the reader by saying “your kids may never get to build a snowman” all because the northern tier of the country was warm and dry during the strong El Niño of 23-24.
The snowy winters of your childhood are gone for good
American winters are getting so warm your kids may never get to build a snowman.
Best of times back in the good old days when we actually still had snowstorms more frequently. I got 9" inches out of that one. One of my top (10) of all time as well. The best memories. If we didn't have them now I don't know how we could make it through this snow drought right now.
Yeah that capped off a pretty good 5 year stretch that started in January 2000. Interesting though that after that storm, CLT would have only 2 snowfalls of 1”+ over the next 5 years until the March 2009 storm and both of those were 1-2” storms in the morning that were mostly melted by the end of the day
The snowy winters of your childhood are gone for good
American winters are getting so warm your kids may never get to build a snowman.
