Floods, drought, heat, top ‘23 weather stories
Record snowfall and winter season precipitation led to flooding in April. A dike was built to protect Ascheman Oil in Danvers.
2023 was year of precipitation and temperature extremes. It saw the highest winter season snowfall on record lead to spring flooding. It saw drought conditions develop and the first 100-degree days in 17 years. And, it saw the warmest and wettest December on record.
Here are the top five weather stories of 2023:
1-Record winter snowfall
and precipitation
At an emergency meeting April 13, the Swift County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution declaring a state of emergency due to flooding from the spring snow melt.
Its action was the result of a 2022-2023 winter season that had seen a record 90.8 inches of snow fall on the area. The previous record snowfall was 78.5 inches from the winter of 2018-2019.
Winter Snowfall
2022-2023 90.80
2018-2019 78.50
1968-1969 76.40
2010-2011 71.60
1966-1967 66.60
Locked up in the record snowfall of 90.8 inches was a record amount of precipitation. For the period from Nov. 1 through March 31, the area set a record for total precipitation with 13.33 inches. The old record was 9.36 inches set in the November to March period of 2008-2009. The average precipitation for the five-month period is 5.16 inches.
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