It wasn't as cold as we thought!

[TradEddie]

NOAA finally got their website fixed up, and once again it becomes apparent that our memories are very selective. 5202 HDD for this region for the season to end of March. Ranked only 18th coldest of the last 100 years. The few dozen HDDs left in April/May are not likely to change that much.

(broken link removed to https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/us)

A good year for me to insulate my basement walls, and a good year to have truly well seasoned oak in stock, but overall, not as cold as we thought. We quickly forget how mild it was in December and early January, I was running in shorts and a t-shirt to work off my new-years hangover.

Well, the good news is that despite the outrageous cost of propane, my BTU/HDD/SQFT for propane was below 4.0 for the second year in a row, although if I add in the cord of firewood, it's 5.8. That's still a 20-30% reduction in propane use since moving in ten years ago. It's nice to see the benefits from all my insulation, window replacement and air-sealing work, and there's still more to be done.

TE

 

[begreen]

That's still in the top 20% coldest. 2014 was the tenth coldest January for Michigan.

 

[Slow1]

Still looks like the coldest winter for us in the last 10 years if I'm reading the data correctly. Cold enough for me

 

[Circus]

Actually, heating wise, it wasn't so bad. The many arctic vortexes were always sunny.
As for frozen buried pipes, it was awful.

 

[BrotherBart]

It was exactly as cold as I thought it was.

 

[ihookem]

I burned about 10% more wood this winter than the year before, but it was a few degrees colder in the house,, but this year we hd hydronic heat, and that makes it seem warmer than it is. It was a lot colder here this winter than the winter before.

 

[TradEddie]

I burned about 10% more wood this winter than the year before, but it was a few degrees colder in the house,, but this year we hd hydronic heat, and that makes it seem warmer than it is. It was a lot colder here this winter than the winter before.

Looking at the NOAA website, Wisconsin had the second-coldest Winter since 1914, and the forth coldest since records began, so for you it really was exceptionally cold. For us, there were a several weeks with almost every day reaching record lows, but the heating season as a whole was tempered by a mild early winter, and a relatively mid spring. "Top 20%" may sound cold, but statistically every five years should be in the "top 20%", your winter was a once in fifty years event (hopefully).

TE

 

[woodgeek]

Meh. Philly got a typical Boston winter this year, in terms of temp and snowfall, maybe a little over 5000 HDD and 70" of snow.

2003 was colder, 2007 had more snow. Nice combination.

A good year to have the pro energy retrofit done preceding summer. I am running about 5-6 BTU/sqft.HDD, versus 11-12 when I moved in in 2005.

OK, that icestorm Nika that caused Sandy-level tree damage, and killed power to >1 M people for several days.....let's not do that again.

 

[velvetfoot]

I'm not getting into naming every storm that comes along.

 

[velvetfoot]

Are degree days missing on that link?
Never mind, I read the fine print: Please note, Degree Days are not available for Agricultural Belts, NWS Regions and Cities; Palmer Indices are not available for NWS Regions and Cities.

 

[TradEddie]

Are degree days missing on that link?
Never mind, I read the fine print: Please note, Degree Days are not available for Agricultural Belts, NWS Regions and Cities; Palmer Indices are not available for NWS Regions and Cities.

You can get degree-days for your "climate division" within a state, but not for individual cities. Climate divisions are much smaller than NWS regions. Within a CD, the HDD is calculated based on multiple weather stations, but weighted for population density.

To get HDD available on the first box, you must have a CD selected, not a city.


TE

 

[TradEddie]

Meh. Philly got a typical Boston winter this year, in terms of temp and snowfall, maybe a little over 5000 HDD and 70" of snow.

2003 was colder, 2007 had more snow. Nice combination.

Yes, our "extreme" winter was just an average for Boston, we're only about 100HDD behind them this year.

Where did you get that data? Is it specifically for Philly, I'd be curious to see how that differs from the NOAA CD data. I know the NOAA page I use isn't specifically for Philly, but taking the season as a whole, I don't see any combination of heating season that shows 2002/2003 to be anything close to being a cold winter, certainly not as cold as the winter we just had.

Your point about 2007 is also a good example of selective memory. It might be remembered as being a "cold" winter due to all the snow, however it was in fact a relatively mild winter, which is often that case for snowy winters; the warmer air holds more moisture leading to more snow.

TE

 

[Slow1]

If you want degree days for your town, try degreedays.net. They pull their info from individual weather underground stations which are pretty much all over the place, likely you can find one very local to yourself.

 

[woodgeek]

I'm not getting into naming every storm that comes along.

Agreed. I only name storms that make my community a federal disaster area.

 

[TradEddie]

I'd only bother to name them if I decide to sleep in the basement. Looking at all the ice damage the next day, I wished I had slept in the basement that night too, although we survived with almost negligible tree damage compared to almost everyone else nearby.

TE

 

[velvetfoot]

Who's naming these non-hurricanes, anyway? The Weather Channel? Nobody asked me.

 

[BrotherBart]

The Weather Underground used to have a great radar site until The Weather Channel bought them and screwed it up. Thankfully the National Weather Service finally has a nice one in beta.

(broken link removed to http://preview.weather.gov/edd/)

 

[Doug MacIVER]

The Weather Underground used to have a great radar site until The Weather Channel bought them and screwed it up. Thankfully the National Weather Service finally has a nice one in beta.

(broken link removed to http://preview.weather.gov/edd/)

take a look here http://weather.cod.edu/

 

[WiscWoody]

I checked HDD's for my area from 10/15/2013 to 4/01/2014 and it was 9180. And we set a record for snowfall at 124". That explains why I see so many pole sheds destroyed this winter.

 

[john193]

We ended up burning 3 tons of pellets just like last season. I likely netted a delta of 0 because this year we installed electric radiant floor heating in the kitchen. With my open floor plan, it helped take some off the load of the pellet stove. My electric bills were only about 20/month higher than last year.

 

[WiscWoody]

Speak for,yourselves, it was colder than usual up here! Our heating degree days for the season was over 9,800 and there is still ice on Lake Superior as of this morning. This winter did in many of the smaller pine trees where they had survived other winters. Too many 30 below and colder nights.

 

[Doug MacIVER]

oh well?

 

[WiscWoody]

oh well?

Oh yeah, my X would be out sunning herself on a beach like that! We would be in California and we were the only ones on the beach, everyone else from the area were still wearing wind breakers! Lol

 

[Bret Chase]

second coldest winter in the last 40 years in ME... according to NOAA.... seems about right... I remember the coldest... 2002. that one really, really sucked, and I wasn't paying for heat at the time

 

[maple1]

What the heck is with all this 'was' stuff?

It's STILL bloody cold....