It's a record year for snowfall

BY DAVID JESSE

The Ann Arbor News

It's just as you suspected - this has been the snowiest winter ever in the Ann Arbor area, or at least since 1880 when record-keeping started.

And it's not over yet.

That's because we're not even into April, a month that normally averages almost 2.5 inches of that pesky white stuff.

If this winter continues the way it's been going, we could be in store for more than that.

Consider this month.

Normally in March, we get about 8.3 inches of snow, said Dennis Kahlbaum, a University of Michigan weather observer. So far in March, with more than a week to go, we've seen 16.7 inches of fluffy precipitation.

A good chunk of that came Friday night and early Saturday morning.

The storm - a narrow band across southern Michigan - dropped 7.5 inches of snow in Ann Arbor, Kahlbaum said.

That was enough to send this winter into the record books and shove the 2004-05 winter aside.

In 2004-05, 83.9 inches of snow fell. This year, we're sitting at 85 inches.
That's a lot of shoveling.

"It seems like I've shoveled a lot this year," said Tori Williamson, 49, who was in front of her Ypsilanti home Saturday. "I've always been fine with shoveling, but now I'm thinking about a snowblower for next winter."

David Jesse can be reached at djesse@annarbornews.com or at 734-994-6937.