We loved it!
It’s not often that all-time records for high temperature and 24 hour snowfall are set in the same winter month but we made a run at it this past week. Madison’s all-time record for greatest 24 hour snowfall was on Dec. 2-3, 1990, when 17.3 inches of snow fell. The official amount of snowfall on Thursday was 15.2 inches of snow, although weather enthusiasts in the area measured more than a foot and a half of snowfall.
Recall that conditions were dramatically different on Dec. 3 of this year when Madison set it all time December high temperature record of 65 degrees (unusual in that it occurred under cloudy skies). As you read this this morning, your muscles may still be sore from having removed a record amount of heavy snow last Thursday and Friday.
If you were outside Thursday morning shoveling that heavy snow, you may have heard thunder during the storm. You experienced thundersnow — a weather event that is not too common in Madison. If you were outside later in the day, you experienced near blizzard conditions. A blizzard is defined as an event with winds of at least 35 mph, combined with either falling snow or blowing snow to reduce visibilities to a quarter mile or less for at least three hours.
We hope some solace can be found in that we have lived through exciting and varied weather these first three weeks of December. The weather rarely spans so broad a range of extremes in the approach to a Madison winter as it has this year.
