More Than a Dozen Locations in West and Midwest Have Had a Top 10 Snowiest February | Weather.com
The Weather Channel

Multiple winter storms have spread across the West and Midwest already this month, propelling some locations to one of their snowiest Februaries on record.

By

Chris Dolce

February 17, 2019

The locations plotted above have already had a top 10 snowiest February. The underlying contours show the estimated snowfall Feb. 1-16, 2019.

More than a dozen locations in the Midwest and West have had a top 10 snowiest February, including a few spots that have set an all-time record.

Winter storms Kai, Lucian, Maya and Nadia have contributed to the heavy snow totals in those regions this month. Some cities have seen snow from at least three of those storms.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Glasgow, Montana; Pendleton, Oregon; and Mammoth Mountain, California, have already had a record snowiest February through mid-month.

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Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is about 100 miles east of Minneapolis, has had 28.7 inches of snow. That total is now approaching the city's all-time record for any month of 35.3 inches set in Jan. 1929.

No location has been snowier this month than California's Sierra Nevada, which has been buried by more than 15 feet of snow. Mammoth Mountain has seen 185 inches of snow as of early Feb. 17, the most in the month of February at the ski area since records began in 1970.

Mammoth Moutain Ski Area Feb. 5, 2019.

(Credit: Mammoth Mountain Ski Area/Twitter)

Glasgow, Montana, has picked up 23.3 inches of snow this month, besting the previous February record of 21.4 inches in 1952.

The 19.3 inches of snow Pendleton, Oregon, has seen this month easily surpassed the previous record of 16.8 inches in February 1994.

Also ranking high is Seattle, which picked up 20.2 inches of snow in a span of nine days earlier this month, ranking as the second snowiest February and seventh snowiest month overall in the Emerald City.

Minneapolis-St. Paul has seen 22.2 inches of snow through Feb. 16, ranking as the fourth snowiest February on record in the Twin Cities. That's less than a half foot away from the all-time February record of 26.5 inches set in 1962.

Before this snow blitz began on Feb. 5, the Twin Cities were actually in a snow drought. The average snow-to-date for the season was about 50 percent of average when February began but has since risen to near average.

Here are some other locations with a top 10 snowiest February (totals and ranking through Feb. 16):

  • Duluth, Minnesota: 28.6 inches (6th snowiest)
  • Grand Forks, North Dakota: 14.5 inches (9th snowiest)
  • Great Falls, Montana: 21.1 inches (5th snowiest)
  • Green Bay, Wisconsin: 19 inches (8th snowiest)
  • Marquette, Michigan: 53 inches (6th snowiest)
  • Pocatello, Idaho: 12.3 inches (9th snowiest)
  • Rochester, Minnesota: 17.6 inches (8th snowiest)
  • Spokane, Washington: 23.6 inches (4th snowiest)