CINCINNATI — May is here, which means we can officially close the door on winter here in the Tri-State. We have only seen snow in May in Cincinnati twice — May 6, 1989, and May 5, 1992. Looking at our extended forecast, there is no chance over the next few weeks.
That means it is time to recap the winter that wasn't. First, let's rewind to October 9, 2023, when I put out my forecast for the upcoming winter season. This was how I ended my article named "A strong El Niño expected this winter: Here's what that means for our weather."
I would still suspect that we see a warmer than normal winter with below normal snowfall.
A warmer-than-normal winter is a winter with an average temperature in December, January and February warmer/higher than 33.9°F. A below-normal snowfall is less than 23.5 inches from October 1 through April 30. Let's see how we did:
Starting with the temperature, this meteorological winter's average temperature finished at 38.3°. That is not only well above our normal winter temperature, it is one of the warmest winters Cincinnati has ever seen. In fact, it comes right in at number 10 on the list for the warmest winters in the Queen City. These records date all the way back to 1872!
That is back-to-back winters to finish within the top 10 warmest winters on record in Cincinnati after 2023 finished in the eighth spot last year.
When looking at the total snowfall, the winter of 2023-2024 finished with a lackluster 7.8 inches of snow, which is more than 15 inches below average. That uninspiring number places this winter in the ninth spot on the list of the least amount of snow during winter on record in Cincinnati.
That checks in as the least amount of snow in a winter since 2011-2012, which still stands as the winter with the fourth least.
This is also the seventh time we have finished with a below-normal winter in the last nine years. The only two years that didn't have below-average snowfall were 2017 to 2018 (23.8") and 2020 to 2021 (32.0").
Lastly, there is one other fascinating fact about this past winter: It is one of only two winters that have finished within the top 10 warmest winters and the top 10 winters with the least amount of snow. The only other winter on both of those lists shown is 1949-1950, which comes in as the ninth warmest and tenth least snowiest.
So you could say that the winter of 2023-2024 is the weakest one we have ever seen.
