UPDATE:

Early in the morning on Feb. 1, 2023, snow began falling in the Baltimore/DC. area, providing the first measurable snowfall for many. As of 7:00 AM, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) had reported 0.2” while DC’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) and Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD) both reported 0.4”. This was the 3rd latest first-measurable snowfall for Baltimore, with a snow archive going back to 1883 (when including the previous downtown locations). Now we wait for the first snowfall of >=1.0″. 

Here is the updated Top-10 list of latest first measurable snowfalls for Baltimore:

ORIGINAL POST:

Here it is, January 28, 2023 and there still has been no measurable snow at Baltimore’s official weather station at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). If current forecasts verify, there will still be none as we move into February.

With Baltimore’s historical snowfall archive going back to 1883, the current snow season, which runs from July 2022-June 2023, is now in third place for the latest first measurable snowfall, having most recently surpassed 1/25/1992 and 1/25/1901. The current two latest dates for receiving measurable snowfall are 2/6/1914 (when 0.2″ fell) and the latest being on 2/21/1973 (when 1.2″ fell).

There has never been a snow season without measurable snowfall in Baltimore, though the winter of 1949-1950 came close when a total of just 0.7″ was recorded when the official station was located in downtown Baltimore at the Custom House, located at 40 S. Gay St. (official weather records were moved to BWI on 7/23/1950).

There have been traces of snowfall at BWI this season, the first being recorded on December 18, 2022, with subsequent traces on December 23rd and now January 25th in 2023, just nothing measurable, which would include amounts of ≥0.1″.

Here are the Top-10 latest dates of measurable snowfalls and amounts:

As can be seen in the above table, a late-in-the-season first snowfall does not necessarily equate to a low season total. Three of the Top-10 ended up with more than 20 inches, with the 2015-2016 season being walloped by 35.1″, mostly from Baltimore’s all-time largest single snowstorm when 29.2″ fell from January 22nd-23rd, beginning just 5 days after the first snowfall of that season. 

The 1965-1966 season didn’t see its first measurable snowfall until 1.0″ accumulated on January 22nd but ended up receiving a monthly total of 21.4″ as measurable amounts fell on 5 additional days before month’s end, including a blizzard bringing 12.1″ of snowfall (with drifts “as high as 10 feet” as reported in the Baltimore Sun newspaper), wind gusts reaching 47 mph, maximum temperatures remaining ≤20° for three consecutive days (28th-30th), and the minimum falling to 1° above zero (29th). As a kid, I still remember this blizzard vividly. Another 11.4″ fell in February 1966, bringing the Jan.-Feb. total to 32.8″. 

What is to come for the remaining 2022-2023 season? Will this be the first season with no measurable snowfall? Will a single storm bring a dumping to the region? Only time will tell. 

Photo credit: Depositphotos