Snowfall data is largely NWS COOP site Purdue Ag Farm.  Some of it is combined in some years, as I found in a few “0″ Januaries, there was actually snow in West Lafayette, making some of the “0″ Januaries seemingly inaccurate.  For example, in 1990, Ag Farm had “0″ in January, but Purdue & Throckmorton Ag Farm sites had 1-2″ & WLFI has 1.5″, so this may have been a mistake in the data or the snow melted before observation time.  Some of the data in the Ag Farm COOP set has 1″ falling on some days & 10″ being on the ground after that 1″, obviously an error, so I had to look at stations around that site to give the most accurate picture of snowfall for the Lafayette/West Lafayette area.

I noticed last year that I would measure 3″ of snowfall at the station for an event & it would all melt off before 7 a.m. the next morning. after falling in the afternoon.  At the 7 a.m. observation time the next morning at the Ag Farm it would read “0″ even though we did have 3″, but it had melted.  This would mislead you to believe much less snowfall occurred last winter than what actually fell. 

So, some of the “0″ months were misleading & I replaced them with the COOP station near Purdue data (FCWOS) with a look at the fragmented WLFI weather records taken during the 1990s & 2000s before I started consistent, daily observations at WLFI in 2009.

Data before 1901 is taken on the Purdue University campus at the original Civil Engineering building.  Data prior to 1887 is from Lafayette.

For more information on forecast now-next week check out the post just prior to this one.

JANUARY 2013, 6th LEAST SNOWY JANUARY SINCE 1895

TOP LEAST SNOWY JANUARIES IN WEST LAFAYETTE

1. 0  1908, 1932, 1944, 1989

2.  0.2″  1916, 1973

3.  0.3″  1998

4.  0.5″  1919

5.  0.8″  1933

6.  1.0″  1986, 2013

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THOSE TOP 6 LEAST SNOWY JANUARIES (IN TERMS OF SNOWFALL)

DID DROUGHT FOLLOW IN THOSE YEARS?

Jan.    Feb.    Mar.    Apr.

1908   0         14″       0          0

Drought?  Yes.  Significant Drought July-November (1.84″ Aug. 1-Nov. 30)…Reaches Extreme Status

1916   0.2″     4″        3.6″      0

Drought?  Yes.  August to October

1919   0.5″     0.2″    3.5″       0

Drought?  Sort of.  Abnormally Dry August-September

1932   0         0.5″     8.5″     0.2″

Drought?  Yes.  April to August

1933   0.8″    2″         7.5″     0

Drought?  Yes.  Significant Drought (Only 0.32″ in June…….Reaches Extreme Status)

1944   0         9.7″     3.3″      0

Drought?  Yes.  June-December (Reaches Extreme Drought by November)

1973   0.2″     1″         2″        0.5″

Drought?  No.  Above-Normal Rainfall Over Summer & Normal Rainfall In Fall

1986    1″      8.3″      1″          0

Drought?  No.  Ample Rainfall Over Summer & Fall (Very Wet May & September)

1989   0         7″         1″         0

Drought?  No.  Ample Rainfall

1998   0.3″    0          4″          0

Drought?  Sort of.  Wet Until July (Very Wet at Times)  August-September Only 2.26″ with Abnormal Dryness

2013    1″        ?          ?           ?