The snowfall Sunday evening into Monday in Louisvilletotaled five inches,bring the winter of 2013-14 total to 19.3 inches.Where does 2013-14 rank among largest snowfall Louisville has ever experienced? Not very high.Going back to 1950, this year's snowfall isn't particularly impressive.
Louisville's biggest seasonal snowfall on record is 50.2 in 1917-18, said Ron Steve, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Louisville."We've had a snowier than normal winter, by quite a bit actually," he said. "We're more than double what we'd normally expect at this point in the winter, and we've actually exceeded what a normal winter would have for the whole season."But despite this, Louisville has had snowier winters in the past decade—barring, of course, several more inches of snow before winter ends.The average date of a last snowfall of Louisville's winter season is March 13—but Steve said Louisville has gotten snow as late as May.Recently, we looked at the number of times per year Jefferson County Public Schools called off classes because of weather issues.When we compare "snow days"* to days it actually snowed, we see some discrepancies—years where Louisville got several inches of snow, but the kids (me, in some of them) still had to go to class. But, looking closer at dates, sometimes the snow fell on a weekend or during holiday breaks.*Some of the off days include the 2008 wind storm and the 2009 ice storm.And, of course, it's been cold—the average temperature in January was 26.8, according to National Weather Service data. In 2013, it was 35.6; the average from 1981-2010 was 32.9.Steve notes that, as with snow, it's been worse."January, yeah, it was cold and well below normal, but it was only the 20th coldest January on record in Louisville," Steve said.One last note: Louisville and the surrounding area will be under a winter storm warning from 4 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. The biggest threat Tuesday afternoon and in the morning will be freezing rain. Snow is possible Wednesday, too. More on this later Tuesday.
