Snow joke, season total in Top 10 and forecaster says more wintry mix may be on the horizon

3/24/2005
BY DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER
  • Snow-joke-season-total-in-Top-10-and-forecaster-says-more-wintry-mix-may-be-on-the-horizon

    Irvin Mctaw cooks ribs outside the Community Variety Store on the corner of Ashland Avenue and Bancroft Street in Toledo.

    lisa dutton / blade

  • We've made a Top 10 list - but it's not David Letterman's, and not many people find it very funny.

    The half-inch of snow that fell at Toledo Express Airport yesterday put our official snowfall total for the 2004-05 season at 52 inches, making this No. 9 on the list of Toledo's top 10 snowiest winters.

    And despite the fact that spring officially arrived Sunday, we may not be done yet.

    Accu-Weather Inc. yesterday predicted the possibility of more rain-snow mixture when another storm system reaches the region tonight.

    "It just could be cold enough where we may see some snow," said John Dlugoenski, a meteorologist with the private forecasting service based in State College, Pa. "It could snow for a couple of hours, but then it's likely to change to rain before sunrise. We're predicting a coating to an inch, but depending on how hard it snows, some areas could get an inch and a half or even two."

    The rain will wash it all away tomorrow, he said, and for the rest of Easter weekend, daily high temperatures should reach at least the mid-40s, with cloudy skies predominating through Monday.

    Unpleasant as it has been, Mr. Dlugoenski said, the recent weather pattern is fairly typical for the Toledo area at this time of year.

    "You get a string of nicer days, but then it gets colder," the forecaster said.

    Three years ago, Toledo had its biggest snowfall of the season during the first week of spring, as 10.5 inches fell at the airport between March 24 and March 26, 2002.

    Unfortunately, history shows that the end of March cannot be assumed to bring the end of snowfall in northwest Ohio. As recently as 1994, Toledo had a five-inch snowfall on April 6 - part of a seven-inch total for that month that wrapped up the sixth-snowiest winter in Toledo history.

    With snow continuing to come down, Jaye Hayes of Toledo cleans the white stuff off her car in downtown Toledo.
    With snow continuing to come down, Jaye Hayes of Toledo cleans the white stuff off her car in downtown Toledo.

    Of even more concern for those tired of the snow: Toledo has five times had measurable snowfalls and 14 times has had at least a trace of snow in May. The highest May snowfall total was four inches in 1923.

    The most recent and the second highest total on record was 1.3 inches in May, 1989, National Weather Service records show.

    The latest recorded snow in Toledo history occurred with a trace of the white stuff recorded on May 24, 1925.

    "We're definitely not out of the woods yet for snowfall," Mr. Dlugoenski said.

    Contact David Patch at:

    dpatch@theblade.com

    or 419-724-6094.