News

Snowstorm hits town once again

Though Mayor Dave Cieslewicz declared spring two weeks earlier this year, snowfall hit Madison during spring break and Sunday afternoon, with even more snow forecast for this week, according to the National Weather Service.

More than 100 inches of snow sets this winter’s snowfall well over the 1978-79 record of 76.1 inches. About one inch is expected today.

It might have felt like spring in the past couple weeks, but Jon Martin, University of Wisconsin atmospheric and ocean sciences department chair, said getting snow after the equinox is not that uncommon, “certainly not unexpected or unusual.”

Madison has had a less than average snowy month of March, he added. The city normally averages 3.5 inches of snow in April.

“I don’t consider the snow season really over until the 15th of April,” Martin said. “It’s rare to get any snow after that.”

But according to Edward Hopkins, climatologist at the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, it is less and less likely to snow beginning in April, at least since 1947.

“In 1947 on Memorial Day, there was a snowstorm in Madison where between six and seven inches fell,” he said. “It caused a lot of damage to the trees in bloom.”

According to Hopkins, the weather pattern this season has shown a very active storm track. The brunt of the storms has especially come across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, he said, adding Madison has seen below-average temperatures most of the winter.

Hopkins said there is no exact explanation for the violent 2007-08 storm season.

“Things come together once in a while and become more intense, and this just so happens to be one of those years,” he said.

The ability to make a long-range forecast, like an outlook for the winter, is quite poor right now, according to Hopkins.

“Meteorologists do a pretty good job predicting weather a day or two in advance,” Hopkins said. “They were darn good for this particular storm system.”