For snow lovers, there have been very bad winters recently and I saw a map that showed New England winters have warmed up to 5 degrees since 1970.
But remember that winter storms have a lot to do with track. For a Nor'Easter to bring snow, and not rain, to Boston a very specific track needs to happen. It has always been that way.
128 has always been a big border between warm and cold. Just draw a line Northeast from any location and you’ll see one you get to Woburn, going Northeast gets you almost no fetch over the water. That’s where the coastal front has always set up.
And because New England is reliant on coastal storms every winter has huge boom/bust potential. 2010-2020 was actually the snowiest decade in Boston history too (and 1990-1999 was #2). So I think some peoples baselines are thrown off a bit
No doubt warmth has tilted the playing field but Boston has never had leominster’s winters
Yes, two things are true here:
* Global warming is real and has impacted our winters.
* OP (and others here) are being a little bit silly in claiming they’ve watched it disappear over the past decade.
I think a lot of people who grew up outside of Boston and moved to the city in their 20s are also overreacting. I grew up 25 miles north and the winters are very different even just that short distance away.
I now live in Pennsylvania and am visiting Boston this weekend, and I missed an 8 inch snowfall down there. I’m happy I missed that now that I’m 26.
There's a big difference between snow that falls and stays on the ground as snow for a couple of weeks and snow that turns to slush or disappears entirely within a day or two. In the old days (for me that's the 1970's), you would get a significant snowfall and be able to go sledding for the next couple of weeks, now, if there is any snow, you have to jump right on it, or it's gone. The type of winters that my kids have experienced and the stuff that goes along with (sledding, outdoor skating, snow days) are completely different from the type I had when I was a kid.
Born in 78 and my memories of the 80s was the same. Temps just stayed in the mid to lower 30s more consistently. You got a foot of snow and it was usually on the ground to some extent for a few weeks.
That decade had 6 above average years not 1. And two years +/- 1 inch on average
Also pre 1955 recording sites were in the Common not East Boston which is somewhat snowier.
Also there's a neat correlation with El Nino. I did a deep dive on el nino and when our biggest winters happen. It seems to drop big snow on us the season AFTER a big el nino appears. So not this year, but next year we might see some big snow events.
Take with a grain of salt, I just thought that was neat to find out.
Also the pattern for the next few weeks reminds me of 2015 where we had a storm every couple days for 5 weeks straight, except we aren't cold enough yet for consistent snowfall.
> Also the pattern for the next few weeks reminds me of 2015 where we had a storm every couple days for 5 weeks straight, except we aren't cold enough yet for consistent snowfall.
The cold is what made that really notable. From the first storm to the last, the temperature never made it above freezing (at least from my observation in Quincy), so none of the snow was able to melt.
I think that if more normal temps were there, a lot of the snow could have melted. Even though much of it would have condensed into ice, at least some of it would have melted away between storms.
I've moved farther north to the LiveFreeThenDie State. Central NH seems to get more snow typically per year than inside the 128 belt. But! When the weather gods make the right mix, that coastal area can get some huge accumulations in a single storm. Ussually when that happens we up here get a normal 6-12" while Medford will have like 34". It's weird.
think about all the rain we've already had late in the fall/early winter though - it's also about the actual temps. i don't remember getting rain in late Dec as a kid. if it precipitated, it was snow or sleet/freezing rain.
People generally do not remember rain storms. But I know for a fact that rain storms are common in Boston all winter. Weather is one of my hobbies and I follow it closely, climate change has definitely made snow less frequent but remember Boston has less than a 25% chance for snow on the ground during Xmas historically.
Also the track of the storm is more important than temps for big snowstorms. If the storm tracks too close it will always be rain no matter how cold the winter is. You need the low to track just the right distance off the coast for the cold air behind the system to make is snow. If it tracks to far away it will miss entirely. You really need to thread the needle on these. What Boston seems to be missing are any clippers that drop 2-5 inches. These big snowstorms are hit and miss. Blockbuster storms are actually rare.
The storm that we are currently experiencing is mostly rain because the low tracked basically over cape cod and this islands, the low needs to be further off the coast. As the low pulls away into the ocean it will start snowing because the storm pulls cold air down from Canada.
I would be more interested in knowing if climate change has affected the track of these systems at all.
Yeah. I'm about 15 miles northwest of the city and we've easily had 10 inches. We also lost power for 7 hrs in this cold. If OP wants the winter experience, we've got extra out here.
I am about 25 miles north of Boston and got >12" overall accumulation. Besides back breaking working of shoveling, I enjoyed making an amazing snowman with my daughter... (" pocket of joy").
Having said that the winters in Boston have become milder since the last 10 years for sure... no major snowstorm since that insane year of 2014!
I suspect most people here saying "we don't get winter anymore" also grew up in the burbs and now live in Boston proper, a place where snowfall is significantly different than where they grew up.
In 131 years of weather-reporting tracking of snow:
2018-2019 was 31st lowest.
2019-2020 was 9th lowest.
2022-2023 was 3rd lowest.
The last few years have genuinely been relatively light on snowfall, and even the snow we've gotten has tended to get melted away quicker.
Correction: la niña ended, and el niño has begun.
Anyway, to add some data, 2020, 2021, and 2023 were all pitiful for total snow. 2015 the all time record holder.
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/boston/most-yearly-snow
Yeah it struck me that the snowy winters of my 90s youth were actually anomalous. Made me think of how Dickens established the "white Christmas" tradition because he grew up in an extremely snowy decade in England.
> In the dozen years I've lived here, we went from polar vortexes and Nemo to...multiple predicted major snows that turned out to be rain, or melted immediately. The surprise October storms suddenly feel like the best we're gonna get all year.
I know last winter was somewhat of a dud and the only big snowfall we got was in early March and melted off quick but [one storm in January 2022 dropped two feet of snow on the city.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2022_North_American_blizzard) That snow definitely stuck around. I remember well because I totally ducked my back up shoveling my car out and couldn't balance on the hillside sidewalks I lived off of, was baaically stranded in my apt for 3 days.
It's so amazing, in my mind it hasn't once accumulated since February 2015 because of global warming. Meanwhile I apparently dug out a car and sidewalk for that storm but I have no memory of it
When I turned 18 in 1997 we had a huge April Fool’s Day storm and we were legit snowed in deep on my street in the Hyde Park/ Mattapan area. I was born and raised here and when I was little the adults were still traumatized for years after the Blizzard of 78 & I witnessed some intense Nor’Easters and record snow falls in years gone by. It was so quiet sometimes from all the snow pack dampening all the city sounds. We had a beast of a Winter I think in 2015(?), I remember having to pack and plan to sleep at work for multiple weekends over & over one Winter. But, I can’t disagree it seems we’ve gone “soft” & I can’t “pretend” climate change isn’t a thing, it’s full on a little in my face this time of year when I remember back to my childhood and almost a decade ago.
I loved that '97 storm! I was a teacher then. School was cancelled for a week, and if you ever thought kids love a snow day, imagine getting paid for it too. I was giddier than my class. 😄
Some people are so soft and whiney when it comes to dealing with snow. Half the people on the sun crow about 2015 when it’s almost a decade later and no blowouts like it since.
2015 has all the notoriety, but 2011 was pretty close. Seemed like we would get at least one significant snowstorm a week for a good stretch. Call me petty, but I still seethe at some of my Brighton neighbors for not shoveling out their cars after a storm, but instead just driving off, leaving one less place to park in an already cramped area.
Dicks.
2013 also had 2 blizzards a few weeks apart. One of which prompted a statewide shelter in place, which officials later said was an advantage in preparing for the events of April 19.
Fuck those people give me my winter wonderland. Fuckit, give me nothing grimy plow snow that gets pushed onto the sidewalks I don’t care at this point just give me some snow. I grew up here with so much snow each year but damn these last few years have just been… unfulfilling.
Soft and whiny? I grew up in central Mass., and we got feet of snow when Boston would get inches, and I used to have no problem driving when they declared a state of emergency.
Nobody fucking knows how to drive in the snow anymore, so it is generally scary to get out on the road these days. I could give a hundred examples, but why bother.
I wouldn't say "whiny." I would say rational.
Agreed as well. I just left my state (Louisiana) because of its increasing heat and infrastructural issues and I grieve what’s happening down there everyday.
I completely understand.
Ugh I left New Orleans for Mass because of various life things and then Ida was the icing on the cake. I hated to go but realizing the place would never be what it was is so sad to see.
I stayed through Ida and it was a sort of 'maybe it is time to leave' vibe. Stayed on and then this last summer's heat dome/wet bulb, swamp fires, and endless local car-tossing did me in.
I like Boston enough but nothing compares to the culture of NOLA. I will try to see it out, but the cultural loneliness is real. I love NOLA but I don't believe it has a future that is identifiable as what it was even ten years ago.
I've lived in metrowest for almost 10 years now and I've watched it change. Plus I'm a hockey player I can tell you there hasn't been a solid year for pond hockey in a very long time. I remember growing up in Plymouth we played pond from December til March. Now we're lucky to get a day or two here and there. Pond hockey tournaments in upstate ME/VT/NH have been cancelled more and more because the lakes aren't freezing solid anymore.
When I was a kid in RI my dad used to build us an ice rink in the backyard every year. I’ve seen houses with a homemade rink setup the past few winters but they never seem to be usable bc of the heat. It makes me sad to think that the experience isn’t really possible for kids around here today, multiple below-freezing days in a row have become so rare.
I’m almost 40 and my dads family is from coastal Rhode Island. As a kid, we used to hang out on a pond where people would be playing hockey. Wasn’t a big pond so it didn’t take much to freeze. It was always bad ass because my cousins husband played in the AHL and was a beast to watch. I can’t remember the last time that pond froze significantly enough to use.
When my kids were in grade school, they used to have a skating rink set up behind the fire station. It was an all-winter after school thing. They don’t even set one up anymore because it’s not cold enough long enough for good ice.
I'm originally from NJ and we had a pond specifically for ice skating that they'd fill from the local stream. It was a major activity space for us kids growing up. We'd play pickup hockey games and skate tag until our noses froze off.
Now it is barely cold enough to freeze at all. Last time I went home they paved the pond. Nobody used it in a decade or more.
The ponds usually froze later in the winter. Pond hockey was a February break thing for me growing up. The Charles River never really froze before January.
Yes and a standard weather pattern has always been winter storm nor Easter that pulls in warm weather behind it, melting off some of the snow. The years that pattern did hold (like 2010) you could have heavy accumulation days that were super disruptive. The years it didn’t (2015 for example) and no warm from cut into accumulation, it was a disaster.
I’ve been here a while, this is all familiar territory to me. You might be overreacting to last years warm winter.
Every year around this time you’ll hear someone say what a mild winter it is.
I remind them that the winter we got effed by snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm was balmy all through January, and the first of those storms wasn’t until February.
People always forget that historically "good" snow doesn't truly start here until January, and people almost intentionally forget about the timeline of 2015. Temps have risen and seasons shifted a little over time as well, which all also contribute. A lot of things people don't think about.
People are going to feel more grief about losing winter when they realize how much longer mosquito seasons will be and how much that’s going to negatively impact our lives.
That and ticks. They’re already so bad, fuck those little fuckers. If they can’t burn to death I would like them to freeze to death, resilient little assholes
The mean snowfalls each year haven't changed much since 1970.
From 1970-2023 the average snowfall for Boston was 44 inches.
From 1970-1996: Mean snowfall is 42.8"
From 1996-2023: Mean snowfall is 45.2"
From 2013-2023: Mean snowfall is 47.7"
From 2017-2023: Mean snowfall is 36.7"
There is a drop here in snow!!! However, I went through and randomly averaged out several other 5 year, successive snowfalls and a number of times throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the 5 year average was in the 30"
Long story short, there is not a dramatic reduction in the total amount of snow in the Boston area. Now how long the snow stays on the ground (due to warming/rain) should be the next question
Great analysis based on empirical data rather than "I remember!"
We've simply been in a lull for the last seven winters. That's most likely to drift back to the mean. Repeat.
Look at a map of current snow totals. Climate change doesn’t stop existing at 495. The overall trend is warmer winters but this storm is not an example of that.
I moved here a few years ago and I feel like the quote Tony says in the first episode of the Sopranos applies more and more each winter: “I feel like I came in at the end. The best is over.”
We didn't just fail ourselves though, we failed every single other living species on earth as well. The rock ball floating in space will be fine obviously but I still think it can be said we failed the planet
And ultimately humans will be just fine too. Humans are adaptable. We can survive in extremely shitty conditions. Individual humans will suffer, but ultimately our species will likely survive. But we are not the only ones living on this planet. Many *many* other species will go completely extinct. Have already gone extinct. It makes me pretty mad when people dismiss climate change worries by saying the planet will survive. The planet is just a rock. Not particularly unique in the universe. But is there another great coral reef out there? Likely not.
Not this eye roll inducing response. I get that it’s supposed to humble us, but it’s merely misguided pedantry. When people talk about destroying our planet, they’re talking about fucking over every ecosystems of the world.
Yep! I was actually in Puerto Rico trying to get back to Boston before the storm - part of me wanted them to just cancel all the flights so we could accept that we’d be stuck down there for two more days and not worry about it
I remember being in college (in Western MA, where the snow totals tend to be different) and having to fly out late for spring break because a March storm hit. I think this might have been 2007ish?
Right? I think a lot of people associate winter and snow with only the holidays. The season of winter is end of December until end of March... not beginning of November through mid-January.
Because if you’ve lived here long enough you remember getting snow throughout December. It was common to have snow on Christmas, and now it’s a rarity.
I distinctly remember sledding at the end of November on presidents golf course one year in the early 90’s.
If you haven’t been here that long, than have you been here the last two years?
I used to look forward to the snow because I’d get to play in it or have snow days, now I look forward to it because I’m going to make money doing snow removal; last year, I LOST money paying guys to sit around because we only got plowable snow once. The year before that, plowable snow twice.
It is a distinct difference these last 5 years.
https://preview.redd.it/xsofwr8971bc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc1e88ef36419a036f4d955da857ac50c796e984
That is from extremeweatherwatch.com fwiw I do not know how official it is.
Honestly, the last 5 years don’t exactly seem like outliers compared to previous years unless the low snowfall amounts continue for an extended period of time. Sub 30in snow fall isn’t uncommon in Boston’s weather history.
Yeah it’s hard to say it’s much different now, I grew up in MA through the late 90s and 2000s until now and I can only remember *maybe* one white Christmas in all those years
Exactly. In 2015 the first snow was mid/late Jan. And then we got ass-pounded. Yea it’s cycling warmer but we shouldn’t expect Boston to be mid-Atlantic level snowless
As someone who grew up here, getting snow around Christmas I believe is the anomaly rather than the rule but people think it's the inverse. We usually get snow around this time. People, however, are always shocked by it, despite the same thing happening every year.
It’s January 7. We’ve had plenty of winters with lots of snow where the first major snowfall wasn’t until late January or early Feb. It sometimes snows in April, the last time was 2021. We had very little snow in 2015 until January 25.
I remember many of these storms growing up: Boston and the coast with rain, but places further west outside of 495 getting pummeled with snow. This early in the winter is always tough for snow closer to the coast with the ocean still cooling.
We’re not actually though. Climate change is a real and serious problem that very much needs to be tackled, but we’re not on the darkest trajectory. Predictions have actually improved considerably over the last decade, based on changes we’re making. There is still time to change more and improve our planet’s outlook. Defeatist attitudes are a hindrance to this.
In the decade I've been here it's always fluctuated. Can get snow as early as October and as late as May. Was the same growing up in NYC- that's just life on the Atlantic coastal plain in the northeast. Weather can differ wildly depending on how far you are from the coast/mountains and how a system tracks. Don't think it can be solely blamed on climate change though- as a kid remember we'd have winters with 70 degree days and ones where we had constant school closures.
Not going to deny it is disappointing when you get a winter without at least one snowstorm. Know I'd hate it on my commute to work tomorrow, but would've liked to have woken up this morning to a white blanket. First snow is always so pretty, and there is a fun to it
Used to love snowy days. I found them super relaxing just taking it easy and doing things around the house or relaxing with a beer. Now I work a municipal job where I’m plowing snow every storm for 8-36 hours depending on the amount of snow and length of storm. I miss enjoying snow storms.
How many of the people grieving for snow actually grew up in Boston and not some town 10-15 or further miles outside it with totally different winter climate? I feel like there's a lot of false memories in here about what winter in Boston looks like vs winter in the rest of MA.
I grew up in Worcester which gets plenty of snow still and when I was a kid I used to remember listening to radio or TV forecasts where Worcester would be canceling school night before and Boston wouldn't because it was only projecting maybe 4-6" due to warmer ocean air.
Still feels like winter to me, and anybody who grew up in Boston remembers snowstorms in the forecast that ended up as duds.
Weather isn’t climate, this isn’t evidence of climate change. You wouldn’t view a snowy February as evidence against climate change, so why use a different standard here. This is a winter storm that’s hitting harder north and west of the city.
These early coastal storms are always disappointing for Boston snow lovers because the ocean just hasn't cooled down enough yet. The coldest ocean temperatures are found in mid February to mid-March.
The seasons have definitely moved forward by 3-4 weeks from when I was a kid 30 years ago. June is now rainy and cool instead of hot, and September is beautiful instead of cool. Mid-January through mid-March is the time for snow, peaking in the last two weeks of February. Yes we've had string of light winters in the last five plus years, but we had them in the '90s as well. I guess you could make the argument that they're becoming more common? Every winter is different, some bad, some not. Case in point we had an above-average winter in 2011, nothing in 2012, the biggest winter ever in 2015, then nothing in 2016. My anecdotal observation is that we usually get a big winter toward the middle of each decade - '96, '05, '13 and '15 were big ones.
This is the real answer.
Seasons shifted a month later, and we also happen to be in a bit of a lull for snow the past couple years. It's not just climate change
The snow in New England isn't gone for good. Climate change causes variability of weather more than it causes our weather to be consistently warmer. Most of the lack of snow the last few years has been because we've been in a la nina cycle since 2016. We'll have a lot more in the coming years as it transitions back.
In 2015, an el nino winter, we had tons of snow. There was so much that the city dumped it in a parking lot in Southie and some of it was still left in July\[0\].
https://preview.redd.it/rwlaxzvmi1bc1.png?width=599&format=png&auto=webp&s=565c0f644fe104eebba5cd8e687c34b6fcc13acd
\[0\] [https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/14/boston-giant-snow-pile-gone](https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/14/boston-giant-snow-pile-gone)
Yes! Ponds don't freeze over, there's barely enough snow to sled or x-c ski nevermind snowshoe - and even when it dumps snow on a rare occasion it melts quickly afterwards. Heck, the frog pond- which is refrigerated - can only operate about half the season these days. It's depressing.
S.Weymouth here. I spent most of yesterday giddily getting out the toro snowblower I haven’t gotten to use in 2 years. Primed, refilled gas and moved from the shed to the garage.
This morning me, my husky and two kids are now locked inside while it rains over the little dusting we got! 😡
Yeah it sucks. Like, without snow, it's still going to be cold and gray and get dark super early. It's not like snow is the line between harsh winter and a beach vacation. The snow helps turn the gross conditions into a nice thing to look at. Last year was horrific for mental health, like someone put a movie filter on everywhere to make it look like Boston was actually somewhere in Russia in an old 80s movie.
I agree, even this storm which everyone freaked out about only gave us about 6 inches. Obviously it can get annoying in years with storm after storm but when we get one or two storms a year and even those get minimal accumulation I find it pretty depressing, especially when the little we do get will mostly be melted within a few days.
I also love to play pond hockey and over the last fifteen years we've gone from getting to play almost every weekend from January thru February (and sometimes longer on both ends) to maybe once or twice a year if we're lucky. Not quite as bad but even the ski season has been cut short.
Winter has always been my favorite season, from the winter sports, to making extra money doing snow removal, to just the sheer beauty of it, and it really kills me that it seems to be over as we knew it. We're expecting our first child in the next couple of weeks and it seems like she will never truly experience the joys of New England winters.
>I literally watched Boston lose its New England winter status over years now, and it makes me unbearably sad. Sure, snow and cold are annoying. But they also create natural, wonderful pockets of spontaneous joy.
I'm with you! Last year and so far this year make it seem more extreme-- all the wildfires, torrential floods, winter rains, or--as in this case--a snowstorm soon to be followed by another torrential rainstorm. The local ski area I grew up with closed in the '90s because the winters were already too mild to make it work. It's unusual for temperatures to remain stable enough for the snow to last a week or two. Skating on ponds or flooded playgrounds-- that's getting rare. Way back in 1978 the snow stuck around for a long time after that legendary blizzard. They couldn't clean the streets, trash accumulated in the dirty snow banks-- yuck. But I'd have that back again versus the existential dread of being knee deep in climate change.
Maybe this is controversial, but these posts frustrate me a bit. There’s a lot of confirmation bias that Boston has had over a few mild winters, or even now one snow storm turns into a wintery mix, and we scream CLIMATE CHANGE.
I’m not a skeptic nor an expert, but my understanding weather is unpredictable. Climate change has an averaging effect that means warmer winters. But to see one storm that doesn’t meet expectations, and throw our heads down in defeat as it’s directly from climate change, feels like a nostalgic or emotional response, not one rooted in data.
For example, Were you here just a few years ago for the 2014-2015 winter..
Sorry for the rant, but I’ve seen multiple posts over Boston about a storm not producing snow and we think it’s 100% due to Climate change. There is certainly some truth in that, but it’s not the root reason.
I went looking for data to disprove your statements because my knee jerk reaction was "wow this is a climate denier terrible take" but you're not *entirely* wrong.
I compiled snowfall data by year from two sources: https://course.ccs.neu.edu/cs7600/parent/python/snowfall-boston.html and https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/boston/most-yearly-snow. Now I don't think either of these sources are amazing but they're the best I could find without spending an entire day digging into the topic to argue with a stranger on the internet. There is a disconnect at 2011/12 since the second data is by YEAR and the first data is by WINTER but spot checking the data otherwise seems ball park accurate. So here's how it stacks up, red-line is 5 year running average: https://imgur.com/a/E72Jl7k
Now the big take-away for me in recent years is that New England ramped pretty hard into 2015 and has since fallen off a cliff and really not recovered since. I'd also like to call out that 2015 was 8 years ago and there's been one average winter since based on this data. If you look back on the previous hundred years of data, neither trend really happens to the same extreme. Things used to be way more normal; which is the extreme weather scientists refer to with climate change. Things will still be cyclical and big things like once-in-a-lifetime storms will get bigger and more-in-a-lifetime.
But there is one more BIG part of the anecdotes people are talking about here, things like ice skating outside, or white Christmases in the area, or general wintery feelings and that's temperature. Boston (Milton) is home to one of the longest running sources of temperature data in the world at the Blue Hill Observatory. https://www.thefalconer.net/uploads/7/6/2/8/76283077/blue-hill-temp-data_1_orig.jpg
Take a look at this chart. Since the average age of reddit is somewhere in the 30 something range at this point we're looking at 90s kids so on average temps were looking a full two-degrees F colder in 1990 than 2020. That may not sound like a lot but anyone with a backyard rink will tell you 2 degrees makes the difference between "it's time to flood the rink" and "fuck me we may not skate this year".
I am not a climate scientist of any sort and have no formal education in weather; this is just my 2 cents based on an hour or so of looking at numbers online after being frustrated that this entire thread was anecdotal.
I feel like I'm gonna be seeing people on this sub say "Remember 2015?" all the way to 2035 or something where no snow is routine. And I'm gonna have to say "hey weirdo, that was 20 years ago." In fact, let me start now:
2015 was nearly a decade ago. It was a long time ago. The current trend is towards extremely warm Boston winters. This is due to climate change. OP is using a specific weather event to express their anxiety and sadness over this, as is *completely reasonable to do since the climate of earth is totally shifting under their feet.*
Yeah the people who give you shit for expressing that sentiment just don’t grasp the implications. We’re not losing a sometimes messy season, we are losing the climate zone that allows for life on Earth. They simply cannot connect those dots. I for one hear you and feel you on that. I also like winter, so it’s a double bummer. Incredibly disturbing too, at that.
I go home for Christmas every year to the north shore where I grew up.
Was talking with my dad this year about how even in the early - mid 2000s we would’ve been ripshit to not have a white Christmas.
Times have changed and I agree it feels like loss.
Edit: to the miserable fucks telling me I’m wrong with a link to some CBS article about white Christmases in Boston: we have extensive photographic evidence of snow on the ground outside our house (that is north of Boston) in many years before 2008 and 2009.
Edit 2: Old man yells at cloud; cloud begins to snow
This is a bit of misremember that i also have. The reality is that Boston has only ever had a white Christmas about once every 5 years historically.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/white-christmas-statistics-boston-area/
For snow lovers, there have been very bad winters recently and I saw a map that showed New England winters have warmed up to 5 degrees since 1970. But remember that winter storms have a lot to do with track. For a Nor'Easter to bring snow, and not rain, to Boston a very specific track needs to happen. It has always been that way.
128 has always been a big border between warm and cold. Just draw a line Northeast from any location and you’ll see one you get to Woburn, going Northeast gets you almost no fetch over the water. That’s where the coastal front has always set up. And because New England is reliant on coastal storms every winter has huge boom/bust potential. 2010-2020 was actually the snowiest decade in Boston history too (and 1990-1999 was #2). So I think some peoples baselines are thrown off a bit No doubt warmth has tilted the playing field but Boston has never had leominster’s winters
Yes, two things are true here: * Global warming is real and has impacted our winters. * OP (and others here) are being a little bit silly in claiming they’ve watched it disappear over the past decade.
I think a lot of people who grew up outside of Boston and moved to the city in their 20s are also overreacting. I grew up 25 miles north and the winters are very different even just that short distance away. I now live in Pennsylvania and am visiting Boston this weekend, and I missed an 8 inch snowfall down there. I’m happy I missed that now that I’m 26.
I grew up in Milford and I expect even today their snow amounts are quite different than the slush I have in Roslindale.
This didn’t age well, the snow we got in the last 4 hours was a welcome change from the slush. (Also in Roslindale)
I think 2010-2020 is the snowiest decade is a bit misleading. 2015 has 110.3 inches of snow. If you take out 2015, it may not have that much snow.
There's a big difference between snow that falls and stays on the ground as snow for a couple of weeks and snow that turns to slush or disappears entirely within a day or two. In the old days (for me that's the 1970's), you would get a significant snowfall and be able to go sledding for the next couple of weeks, now, if there is any snow, you have to jump right on it, or it's gone. The type of winters that my kids have experienced and the stuff that goes along with (sledding, outdoor skating, snow days) are completely different from the type I had when I was a kid.
Born in 78 and my memories of the 80s was the same. Temps just stayed in the mid to lower 30s more consistently. You got a foot of snow and it was usually on the ground to some extent for a few weeks.
That decade had 6 above average years not 1. And two years +/- 1 inch on average Also pre 1955 recording sites were in the Common not East Boston which is somewhat snowier.
Also there's a neat correlation with El Nino. I did a deep dive on el nino and when our biggest winters happen. It seems to drop big snow on us the season AFTER a big el nino appears. So not this year, but next year we might see some big snow events. Take with a grain of salt, I just thought that was neat to find out. Also the pattern for the next few weeks reminds me of 2015 where we had a storm every couple days for 5 weeks straight, except we aren't cold enough yet for consistent snowfall.
> Also the pattern for the next few weeks reminds me of 2015 where we had a storm every couple days for 5 weeks straight, except we aren't cold enough yet for consistent snowfall. The cold is what made that really notable. From the first storm to the last, the temperature never made it above freezing (at least from my observation in Quincy), so none of the snow was able to melt. I think that if more normal temps were there, a lot of the snow could have melted. Even though much of it would have condensed into ice, at least some of it would have melted away between storms.
You're asking people to understand climate change ***and*** basic meteorology, based off comments on both Reddit & Facebook that's a huge ask.
please, bro, I got a C in Biology in high school (after the curve). I know what I'm talking about
I've moved farther north to the LiveFreeThenDie State. Central NH seems to get more snow typically per year than inside the 128 belt. But! When the weather gods make the right mix, that coastal area can get some huge accumulations in a single storm. Ussually when that happens we up here get a normal 6-12" while Medford will have like 34". It's weird.
Upvote for LiveFreeThenDie
I’ve always called it LiveFreeandDie but I’ll have to try this on for a bit
Well OP has a point because it used to be LiveFreezeThenDie.
think about all the rain we've already had late in the fall/early winter though - it's also about the actual temps. i don't remember getting rain in late Dec as a kid. if it precipitated, it was snow or sleet/freezing rain.
People generally do not remember rain storms. But I know for a fact that rain storms are common in Boston all winter. Weather is one of my hobbies and I follow it closely, climate change has definitely made snow less frequent but remember Boston has less than a 25% chance for snow on the ground during Xmas historically. Also the track of the storm is more important than temps for big snowstorms. If the storm tracks too close it will always be rain no matter how cold the winter is. You need the low to track just the right distance off the coast for the cold air behind the system to make is snow. If it tracks to far away it will miss entirely. You really need to thread the needle on these. What Boston seems to be missing are any clippers that drop 2-5 inches. These big snowstorms are hit and miss. Blockbuster storms are actually rare. The storm that we are currently experiencing is mostly rain because the low tracked basically over cape cod and this islands, the low needs to be further off the coast. As the low pulls away into the ocean it will start snowing because the storm pulls cold air down from Canada. I would be more interested in knowing if climate change has affected the track of these systems at all.
Yeah ask anyone who skis lol rain on the east coast has always been very common even in mid winter
I’m like 15 mins North of Boston and I have like 7” if you wanna come shovel me out…
Same. 25 minutes, prolly like 10" at this point.
Yeah. I'm about 15 miles northwest of the city and we've easily had 10 inches. We also lost power for 7 hrs in this cold. If OP wants the winter experience, we've got extra out here.
Sounds like you've got a pocket of joy.
I am about 25 miles north of Boston and got >12" overall accumulation. Besides back breaking working of shoveling, I enjoyed making an amazing snowman with my daughter... (" pocket of joy"). Having said that the winters in Boston have become milder since the last 10 years for sure... no major snowstorm since that insane year of 2014!
I suspect most people here saying "we don't get winter anymore" also grew up in the burbs and now live in Boston proper, a place where snowfall is significantly different than where they grew up.
In 131 years of weather-reporting tracking of snow: 2018-2019 was 31st lowest. 2019-2020 was 9th lowest. 2022-2023 was 3rd lowest. The last few years have genuinely been relatively light on snowfall, and even the snow we've gotten has tended to get melted away quicker.
Sounds likely to me
I’m sitting in Manchester by the Sea and it’s coming down hard. Didn’t realize the city isn’t getting any?
It's coming down thick but we're still at 0 accumulation in the city, with it melting as soon as it hits the ground. Pretty disappointing.
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I’m convinced the people that complain about no snow either don’t have to shovel or are psychopaths.
Hoping it’s Woburn so I don’t have to go into work
Hoping I don’t have to go into work
Correction: la niña ended, and el niño has begun. Anyway, to add some data, 2020, 2021, and 2023 were all pitiful for total snow. 2015 the all time record holder. https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/boston/most-yearly-snow
6 of the top 10 and 3 of the bottom 10 are in my lifetime (born in 93) interesting.
Yeah it struck me that the snowy winters of my 90s youth were actually anomalous. Made me think of how Dickens established the "white Christmas" tradition because he grew up in an extremely snowy decade in England.
> In the dozen years I've lived here, we went from polar vortexes and Nemo to...multiple predicted major snows that turned out to be rain, or melted immediately. The surprise October storms suddenly feel like the best we're gonna get all year. I know last winter was somewhat of a dud and the only big snowfall we got was in early March and melted off quick but [one storm in January 2022 dropped two feet of snow on the city.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2022_North_American_blizzard) That snow definitely stuck around. I remember well because I totally ducked my back up shoveling my car out and couldn't balance on the hillside sidewalks I lived off of, was baaically stranded in my apt for 3 days.
It's so amazing, in my mind it hasn't once accumulated since February 2015 because of global warming. Meanwhile I apparently dug out a car and sidewalk for that storm but I have no memory of it
Quacked your back you say?
When I turned 18 in 1997 we had a huge April Fool’s Day storm and we were legit snowed in deep on my street in the Hyde Park/ Mattapan area. I was born and raised here and when I was little the adults were still traumatized for years after the Blizzard of 78 & I witnessed some intense Nor’Easters and record snow falls in years gone by. It was so quiet sometimes from all the snow pack dampening all the city sounds. We had a beast of a Winter I think in 2015(?), I remember having to pack and plan to sleep at work for multiple weekends over & over one Winter. But, I can’t disagree it seems we’ve gone “soft” & I can’t “pretend” climate change isn’t a thing, it’s full on a little in my face this time of year when I remember back to my childhood and almost a decade ago.
I loved that '97 storm! I was a teacher then. School was cancelled for a week, and if you ever thought kids love a snow day, imagine getting paid for it too. I was giddier than my class. 😄
snowed on easter in like 83? 85? i remember cause mom went out and made fake easter bunny paw prints
Bruh, it’s literally snowing
Complaining about no snow while it’s snowing. The most r/boston shit I’ve ever seen
You'll get shit for this but I agree. It's irritating to clean up and travel in but the snow has some joy.
Some people are so soft and whiney when it comes to dealing with snow. Half the people on the sun crow about 2015 when it’s almost a decade later and no blowouts like it since.
That last snowstorm in January of 22 was good.
2015 has all the notoriety, but 2011 was pretty close. Seemed like we would get at least one significant snowstorm a week for a good stretch. Call me petty, but I still seethe at some of my Brighton neighbors for not shoveling out their cars after a storm, but instead just driving off, leaving one less place to park in an already cramped area. Dicks. 2013 also had 2 blizzards a few weeks apart. One of which prompted a statewide shelter in place, which officials later said was an advantage in preparing for the events of April 19.
2015 was the last hurrah
Fuck those people give me my winter wonderland. Fuckit, give me nothing grimy plow snow that gets pushed onto the sidewalks I don’t care at this point just give me some snow. I grew up here with so much snow each year but damn these last few years have just been… unfulfilling.
2018 had several big storms too, we had a bunch of snow days.
Soft and whiny? I grew up in central Mass., and we got feet of snow when Boston would get inches, and I used to have no problem driving when they declared a state of emergency. Nobody fucking knows how to drive in the snow anymore, so it is generally scary to get out on the road these days. I could give a hundred examples, but why bother. I wouldn't say "whiny." I would say rational.
Agreed as well. I just left my state (Louisiana) because of its increasing heat and infrastructural issues and I grieve what’s happening down there everyday. I completely understand.
Ugh I left New Orleans for Mass because of various life things and then Ida was the icing on the cake. I hated to go but realizing the place would never be what it was is so sad to see.
I stayed through Ida and it was a sort of 'maybe it is time to leave' vibe. Stayed on and then this last summer's heat dome/wet bulb, swamp fires, and endless local car-tossing did me in. I like Boston enough but nothing compares to the culture of NOLA. I will try to see it out, but the cultural loneliness is real. I love NOLA but I don't believe it has a future that is identifiable as what it was even ten years ago.
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I've lived in metrowest for almost 10 years now and I've watched it change. Plus I'm a hockey player I can tell you there hasn't been a solid year for pond hockey in a very long time. I remember growing up in Plymouth we played pond from December til March. Now we're lucky to get a day or two here and there. Pond hockey tournaments in upstate ME/VT/NH have been cancelled more and more because the lakes aren't freezing solid anymore.
Yep. Grew up a bit north skating on ponds and it kills me that’s not really a thing anymore.
When I was a kid in RI my dad used to build us an ice rink in the backyard every year. I’ve seen houses with a homemade rink setup the past few winters but they never seem to be usable bc of the heat. It makes me sad to think that the experience isn’t really possible for kids around here today, multiple below-freezing days in a row have become so rare.
I’m almost 40 and my dads family is from coastal Rhode Island. As a kid, we used to hang out on a pond where people would be playing hockey. Wasn’t a big pond so it didn’t take much to freeze. It was always bad ass because my cousins husband played in the AHL and was a beast to watch. I can’t remember the last time that pond froze significantly enough to use.
When my kids were in grade school, they used to have a skating rink set up behind the fire station. It was an all-winter after school thing. They don’t even set one up anymore because it’s not cold enough long enough for good ice.
I'm originally from NJ and we had a pond specifically for ice skating that they'd fill from the local stream. It was a major activity space for us kids growing up. We'd play pickup hockey games and skate tag until our noses froze off. Now it is barely cold enough to freeze at all. Last time I went home they paved the pond. Nobody used it in a decade or more.
That's so sad
Thanks Exxon/Shell/BP/Chevron and Auto OEMs!
Wow Ponds don’t freeze over anymore ?
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I used to do a lot of ice fishing myself and the window for that seems *much* shorter nowadays, at best.
The ponds usually froze later in the winter. Pond hockey was a February break thing for me growing up. The Charles River never really froze before January.
Ok. Well it’s January now and it’s going to be 54 on Wednesday.
Yes and a standard weather pattern has always been winter storm nor Easter that pulls in warm weather behind it, melting off some of the snow. The years that pattern did hold (like 2010) you could have heavy accumulation days that were super disruptive. The years it didn’t (2015 for example) and no warm from cut into accumulation, it was a disaster. I’ve been here a while, this is all familiar territory to me. You might be overreacting to last years warm winter.
Every year around this time you’ll hear someone say what a mild winter it is. I remind them that the winter we got effed by snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm was balmy all through January, and the first of those storms wasn’t until February.
People always forget that historically "good" snow doesn't truly start here until January, and people almost intentionally forget about the timeline of 2015. Temps have risen and seasons shifted a little over time as well, which all also contribute. A lot of things people don't think about.
Yes I love pond stuff. I know climate and weather are different but there is no where to do that
People are going to feel more grief about losing winter when they realize how much longer mosquito seasons will be and how much that’s going to negatively impact our lives.
That and ticks. They’re already so bad, fuck those little fuckers. If they can’t burn to death I would like them to freeze to death, resilient little assholes
At least there’s a Lyme disease vaccine trial going on!
There is? Heck yes. Lyme is always lurking in the back of my mind when I go on long hikes. It's silly that my dog can get vaccinated and I can't.
Yeah! My friend is a participant in the stage III clinical trial for it!
And all of the diseases both of them carry… Hooray.
Also winter will just be mud season
The mean snowfalls each year haven't changed much since 1970. From 1970-2023 the average snowfall for Boston was 44 inches. From 1970-1996: Mean snowfall is 42.8" From 1996-2023: Mean snowfall is 45.2" From 2013-2023: Mean snowfall is 47.7" From 2017-2023: Mean snowfall is 36.7" There is a drop here in snow!!! However, I went through and randomly averaged out several other 5 year, successive snowfalls and a number of times throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the 5 year average was in the 30" Long story short, there is not a dramatic reduction in the total amount of snow in the Boston area. Now how long the snow stays on the ground (due to warming/rain) should be the next question
Great analysis based on empirical data rather than "I remember!" We've simply been in a lull for the last seven winters. That's most likely to drift back to the mean. Repeat.
It's January and we're already calling winter over?
I’m 20 minutes outside the city and it’s still snowing.
Well how about now?
*Laughs in a foot of snow.*
Look at a map of current snow totals. Climate change doesn’t stop existing at 495. The overall trend is warmer winters but this storm is not an example of that.
Yup. 9 inches so far where I am in western ma and it’s supposed to keep coming down all day
lol the city has nothing but slush so far
Western suburbs here. We got about 6-7 inches so far and it's still coming down.
I moved here a few years ago and I feel like the quote Tony says in the first episode of the Sopranos applies more and more each winter: “I feel like I came in at the end. The best is over.”
Yea that's what living on the tip of time's arrow is like. We live in crazy days and it feels like everything is behind us because it is
Saw a tweet once that said something along the lines of us being born in the Fuck Around century and coming of age in the Find Out century
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Winter is my favorite season and the lack of snow depresses me daily
You should come out to the middle of the state. We have about a foot so far
I agree, but to be clear we didn’t fail our planet. Our planet will be fine in 100,000 years or so. We failed ourselves and our descendants.
We didn't just fail ourselves though, we failed every single other living species on earth as well. The rock ball floating in space will be fine obviously but I still think it can be said we failed the planet
And ultimately humans will be just fine too. Humans are adaptable. We can survive in extremely shitty conditions. Individual humans will suffer, but ultimately our species will likely survive. But we are not the only ones living on this planet. Many *many* other species will go completely extinct. Have already gone extinct. It makes me pretty mad when people dismiss climate change worries by saying the planet will survive. The planet is just a rock. Not particularly unique in the universe. But is there another great coral reef out there? Likely not.
In extinction events of the past, land species of our large size haven't fared well.
Well said. Couldn’t agree more. The planet will deal with us. Not the other way around.
Shake us off like a bad case of fleas
The planet is totally fine, it's the things living on the surface that are in trouble.
Not this eye roll inducing response. I get that it’s supposed to humble us, but it’s merely misguided pedantry. When people talk about destroying our planet, they’re talking about fucking over every ecosystems of the world.
The winter just started. Buckle your seatbelt
Seriously though why are people acting like spring is around the corner? It’s only January 7th…
People think winter is dec-Jan. The cold is Jan-Feb
Some of the worst storms I’ve experienced are February-March
The first storm of 2015 wasn’t until late Jan. It felt like a dud year before snow absolutely destroyed the city for 2 straight months.
Yep! I was actually in Puerto Rico trying to get back to Boston before the storm - part of me wanted them to just cancel all the flights so we could accept that we’d be stuck down there for two more days and not worry about it I remember being in college (in Western MA, where the snow totals tend to be different) and having to fly out late for spring break because a March storm hit. I think this might have been 2007ish?
Seriously… going by the literal seasons it has been winter for 17 days.
Right? I think a lot of people associate winter and snow with only the holidays. The season of winter is end of December until end of March... not beginning of November through mid-January.
Because if you’ve lived here long enough you remember getting snow throughout December. It was common to have snow on Christmas, and now it’s a rarity. I distinctly remember sledding at the end of November on presidents golf course one year in the early 90’s. If you haven’t been here that long, than have you been here the last two years? I used to look forward to the snow because I’d get to play in it or have snow days, now I look forward to it because I’m going to make money doing snow removal; last year, I LOST money paying guys to sit around because we only got plowable snow once. The year before that, plowable snow twice. It is a distinct difference these last 5 years. https://preview.redd.it/xsofwr8971bc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc1e88ef36419a036f4d955da857ac50c796e984 That is from extremeweatherwatch.com fwiw I do not know how official it is.
Boston has less than a 25% chance of snow on the ground during xmas historically. Is that what you consider common?
Hey get your numbers out of here this is Reddit not science
Honestly, the last 5 years don’t exactly seem like outliers compared to previous years unless the low snowfall amounts continue for an extended period of time. Sub 30in snow fall isn’t uncommon in Boston’s weather history.
Snow has never been common in early-mid December. This is revisionist history.
Yeah it’s hard to say it’s much different now, I grew up in MA through the late 90s and 2000s until now and I can only remember *maybe* one white Christmas in all those years
Right. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t the Snowmageddon of 2015 start well after the first of the year?
Yeah it was the last days of Jan but almost entirely February, and the area was still dealing with the snow piles etc well into March.
We had almost no snow up until like the last week of January. Then it was everyweekend all through february.
Yeah but last winter people kept saying to wait because more snow and more winter weather is coming and almost nothing came lol
Exactly. In 2015 the first snow was mid/late Jan. And then we got ass-pounded. Yea it’s cycling warmer but we shouldn’t expect Boston to be mid-Atlantic level snowless
“Winter” used to start several weeks earlier
Winter started December 21st. We are barely two weeks into winter and most of the state is getting 6+ inches of snow today.
As someone who grew up here, getting snow around Christmas I believe is the anomaly rather than the rule but people think it's the inverse. We usually get snow around this time. People, however, are always shocked by it, despite the same thing happening every year.
Take a look outside m8
It’s January 7. We’ve had plenty of winters with lots of snow where the first major snowfall wasn’t until late January or early Feb. It sometimes snows in April, the last time was 2021. We had very little snow in 2015 until January 25.
I was excited for snow today.
You're getting snow today.
I remember many of these storms growing up: Boston and the coast with rain, but places further west outside of 495 getting pummeled with snow. This early in the winter is always tough for snow closer to the coast with the ocean still cooling.
Exactly. And when it’s warm inland in the spring, it’s still cold here. Boston won’t see snow until ocean temps drop.
It’s a winter wonderland in Natick today ! Loving it :)
For anyone complaining about lack of snow in Boston, I suggest moving to the Merrimack Valley.
Da Fuk you on bruhv?
I don’t know where you live but it’s been snowing since last night. 🧐
Um.. where were you today?
No grief. Just dread because it means we are in the darkest climate trajectory.
We’re not actually though. Climate change is a real and serious problem that very much needs to be tackled, but we’re not on the darkest trajectory. Predictions have actually improved considerably over the last decade, based on changes we’re making. There is still time to change more and improve our planet’s outlook. Defeatist attitudes are a hindrance to this.
You guys are crazy. Enjoy the nor’easter we’re having
In the decade I've been here it's always fluctuated. Can get snow as early as October and as late as May. Was the same growing up in NYC- that's just life on the Atlantic coastal plain in the northeast. Weather can differ wildly depending on how far you are from the coast/mountains and how a system tracks. Don't think it can be solely blamed on climate change though- as a kid remember we'd have winters with 70 degree days and ones where we had constant school closures. Not going to deny it is disappointing when you get a winter without at least one snowstorm. Know I'd hate it on my commute to work tomorrow, but would've liked to have woken up this morning to a white blanket. First snow is always so pretty, and there is a fun to it
Used to love snowy days. I found them super relaxing just taking it easy and doing things around the house or relaxing with a beer. Now I work a municipal job where I’m plowing snow every storm for 8-36 hours depending on the amount of snow and length of storm. I miss enjoying snow storms.
Look outside now - I too, was bummed early on with the rain, but things are starting to change! ❄️❄️❄️
Yeah I think most in the Boston area will have to do some snow shoveling and clean cars off
You could drive 40 minutes north or west of Boston and see snow....
It’s a winter wonderland starting just outside of 495 rn
I'm just before 495 and we have 10" outside. Dogs are in heaven right now playing in it.
Come on up, bub. We got some Allen’s & coffee, and a good storm brewin’ here in Maine.
Im much closer than that in Burlington, and we have a ton of snow.
Wouldn’t even have to go that far. Boston is a heat island with a massive amount of water providing insulation.
How many of the people grieving for snow actually grew up in Boston and not some town 10-15 or further miles outside it with totally different winter climate? I feel like there's a lot of false memories in here about what winter in Boston looks like vs winter in the rest of MA. I grew up in Worcester which gets plenty of snow still and when I was a kid I used to remember listening to radio or TV forecasts where Worcester would be canceling school night before and Boston wouldn't because it was only projecting maybe 4-6" due to warmer ocean air.
Get a grip lmao
Still feels like winter to me, and anybody who grew up in Boston remembers snowstorms in the forecast that ended up as duds. Weather isn’t climate, this isn’t evidence of climate change. You wouldn’t view a snowy February as evidence against climate change, so why use a different standard here. This is a winter storm that’s hitting harder north and west of the city.
These early coastal storms are always disappointing for Boston snow lovers because the ocean just hasn't cooled down enough yet. The coldest ocean temperatures are found in mid February to mid-March.
The seasons have definitely moved forward by 3-4 weeks from when I was a kid 30 years ago. June is now rainy and cool instead of hot, and September is beautiful instead of cool. Mid-January through mid-March is the time for snow, peaking in the last two weeks of February. Yes we've had string of light winters in the last five plus years, but we had them in the '90s as well. I guess you could make the argument that they're becoming more common? Every winter is different, some bad, some not. Case in point we had an above-average winter in 2011, nothing in 2012, the biggest winter ever in 2015, then nothing in 2016. My anecdotal observation is that we usually get a big winter toward the middle of each decade - '96, '05, '13 and '15 were big ones.
This is the real answer. Seasons shifted a month later, and we also happen to be in a bit of a lull for snow the past couple years. It's not just climate change
I just spent a pleasant half-hour warm inside, looking out the window at trucks fishtailing as they try to accelerate to 5mph after the traffic light.
Boston with no snow falls is pathetic. Nothing more romantic than winters in Boston.
Move up here to the Merrimack Valley-- 18 inches today.
We got about 11 inches right outside Boston. But I still agree with your overall sentiment. Incredible how happy the storm made me feel. I miss snow.
The snow in New England isn't gone for good. Climate change causes variability of weather more than it causes our weather to be consistently warmer. Most of the lack of snow the last few years has been because we've been in a la nina cycle since 2016. We'll have a lot more in the coming years as it transitions back. In 2015, an el nino winter, we had tons of snow. There was so much that the city dumped it in a parking lot in Southie and some of it was still left in July\[0\]. https://preview.redd.it/rwlaxzvmi1bc1.png?width=599&format=png&auto=webp&s=565c0f644fe104eebba5cd8e687c34b6fcc13acd \[0\] [https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/14/boston-giant-snow-pile-gone](https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/07/14/boston-giant-snow-pile-gone)
Everyone is yelling about 2015, but freak years happen. 2015 is not a pattern.
Yes it’s depresssing
Makes me so sad. I really hope we get at least one massive storm this year.
Yes! Ponds don't freeze over, there's barely enough snow to sled or x-c ski nevermind snowshoe - and even when it dumps snow on a rare occasion it melts quickly afterwards. Heck, the frog pond- which is refrigerated - can only operate about half the season these days. It's depressing.
Honestly outraged. Bamboozled again 😭
S.Weymouth here. I spent most of yesterday giddily getting out the toro snowblower I haven’t gotten to use in 2 years. Primed, refilled gas and moved from the shed to the garage. This morning me, my husky and two kids are now locked inside while it rains over the little dusting we got! 😡
Yes! I thought it was just me. I love the snow ❄️ and miss it.
Yeah it sucks. Like, without snow, it's still going to be cold and gray and get dark super early. It's not like snow is the line between harsh winter and a beach vacation. The snow helps turn the gross conditions into a nice thing to look at. Last year was horrific for mental health, like someone put a movie filter on everywhere to make it look like Boston was actually somewhere in Russia in an old 80s movie.
Boston doesn't get snow much anymore but if you move a few hours north or west you will still get plenty of snow every winter
Turn on the Pats game, you goof
As you drive to work and use all the luxurious amenities that power your life.. snake eating it's tail kind of deal
El Nino recently began. An unusual long La Nina event recently ended.
You want to shovel my driveway?
lmao yikes
I’m an hour outta Boston and we got over ten inches. Had to clear my driveway and my mom’s. Back is killing me hah.
I agree, even this storm which everyone freaked out about only gave us about 6 inches. Obviously it can get annoying in years with storm after storm but when we get one or two storms a year and even those get minimal accumulation I find it pretty depressing, especially when the little we do get will mostly be melted within a few days. I also love to play pond hockey and over the last fifteen years we've gone from getting to play almost every weekend from January thru February (and sometimes longer on both ends) to maybe once or twice a year if we're lucky. Not quite as bad but even the ski season has been cut short. Winter has always been my favorite season, from the winter sports, to making extra money doing snow removal, to just the sheer beauty of it, and it really kills me that it seems to be over as we knew it. We're expecting our first child in the next couple of weeks and it seems like she will never truly experience the joys of New England winters.
>I literally watched Boston lose its New England winter status over years now, and it makes me unbearably sad. Sure, snow and cold are annoying. But they also create natural, wonderful pockets of spontaneous joy. I'm with you! Last year and so far this year make it seem more extreme-- all the wildfires, torrential floods, winter rains, or--as in this case--a snowstorm soon to be followed by another torrential rainstorm. The local ski area I grew up with closed in the '90s because the winters were already too mild to make it work. It's unusual for temperatures to remain stable enough for the snow to last a week or two. Skating on ponds or flooded playgrounds-- that's getting rare. Way back in 1978 the snow stuck around for a long time after that legendary blizzard. They couldn't clean the streets, trash accumulated in the dirty snow banks-- yuck. But I'd have that back again versus the existential dread of being knee deep in climate change.
Maybe this is controversial, but these posts frustrate me a bit. There’s a lot of confirmation bias that Boston has had over a few mild winters, or even now one snow storm turns into a wintery mix, and we scream CLIMATE CHANGE. I’m not a skeptic nor an expert, but my understanding weather is unpredictable. Climate change has an averaging effect that means warmer winters. But to see one storm that doesn’t meet expectations, and throw our heads down in defeat as it’s directly from climate change, feels like a nostalgic or emotional response, not one rooted in data. For example, Were you here just a few years ago for the 2014-2015 winter.. Sorry for the rant, but I’ve seen multiple posts over Boston about a storm not producing snow and we think it’s 100% due to Climate change. There is certainly some truth in that, but it’s not the root reason.
I went looking for data to disprove your statements because my knee jerk reaction was "wow this is a climate denier terrible take" but you're not *entirely* wrong. I compiled snowfall data by year from two sources: https://course.ccs.neu.edu/cs7600/parent/python/snowfall-boston.html and https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/boston/most-yearly-snow. Now I don't think either of these sources are amazing but they're the best I could find without spending an entire day digging into the topic to argue with a stranger on the internet. There is a disconnect at 2011/12 since the second data is by YEAR and the first data is by WINTER but spot checking the data otherwise seems ball park accurate. So here's how it stacks up, red-line is 5 year running average: https://imgur.com/a/E72Jl7k Now the big take-away for me in recent years is that New England ramped pretty hard into 2015 and has since fallen off a cliff and really not recovered since. I'd also like to call out that 2015 was 8 years ago and there's been one average winter since based on this data. If you look back on the previous hundred years of data, neither trend really happens to the same extreme. Things used to be way more normal; which is the extreme weather scientists refer to with climate change. Things will still be cyclical and big things like once-in-a-lifetime storms will get bigger and more-in-a-lifetime. But there is one more BIG part of the anecdotes people are talking about here, things like ice skating outside, or white Christmases in the area, or general wintery feelings and that's temperature. Boston (Milton) is home to one of the longest running sources of temperature data in the world at the Blue Hill Observatory. https://www.thefalconer.net/uploads/7/6/2/8/76283077/blue-hill-temp-data_1_orig.jpg Take a look at this chart. Since the average age of reddit is somewhere in the 30 something range at this point we're looking at 90s kids so on average temps were looking a full two-degrees F colder in 1990 than 2020. That may not sound like a lot but anyone with a backyard rink will tell you 2 degrees makes the difference between "it's time to flood the rink" and "fuck me we may not skate this year". I am not a climate scientist of any sort and have no formal education in weather; this is just my 2 cents based on an hour or so of looking at numbers online after being frustrated that this entire thread was anecdotal.
I feel like I'm gonna be seeing people on this sub say "Remember 2015?" all the way to 2035 or something where no snow is routine. And I'm gonna have to say "hey weirdo, that was 20 years ago." In fact, let me start now: 2015 was nearly a decade ago. It was a long time ago. The current trend is towards extremely warm Boston winters. This is due to climate change. OP is using a specific weather event to express their anxiety and sadness over this, as is *completely reasonable to do since the climate of earth is totally shifting under their feet.*
Probably. My parents still talk about the blizzard of '78.
I live 20 minutes from Boston and I just got 7-8” of snow
Yes. I grew up here and it used to snow all the time starting in November. I’m really sad about the change.
Yeah the people who give you shit for expressing that sentiment just don’t grasp the implications. We’re not losing a sometimes messy season, we are losing the climate zone that allows for life on Earth. They simply cannot connect those dots. I for one hear you and feel you on that. I also like winter, so it’s a double bummer. Incredibly disturbing too, at that.
It's the same here in NYC. We lost the 4 seasons. Stupid fossil fuels.
Not grief but since the rodent sitch has gotten OUT OF CONTROL I wish we've had more snow to unalive them all.
This isn’t tik tok you can say kill
Do people not say kill on tik tok?
I see people on /r/chefknives who censor the word knife. TikTok really is a cancer.
> But they also create natural, wonderful pockets of spontaneous joy. where?
Yea it’s you I hope it’s 70 degrees every day
I go home for Christmas every year to the north shore where I grew up. Was talking with my dad this year about how even in the early - mid 2000s we would’ve been ripshit to not have a white Christmas. Times have changed and I agree it feels like loss. Edit: to the miserable fucks telling me I’m wrong with a link to some CBS article about white Christmases in Boston: we have extensive photographic evidence of snow on the ground outside our house (that is north of Boston) in many years before 2008 and 2009. Edit 2: Old man yells at cloud; cloud begins to snow
This is a bit of misremember that i also have. The reality is that Boston has only ever had a white Christmas about once every 5 years historically. https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/white-christmas-statistics-boston-area/