Parts of Northeast Picked Up More Snow in Winter Storm Orlena Than the Entire 2019-20 Season

Winter Storm Orlena delivered more snow in a matter of hours in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. than all of last season, one of the least snowy on record.

Orlena dumped over a foot of snow in parts of the New York City Tri-State Area with snowfall rates of up to 2 inches per hour Monday, accompanied by winds gusting over 30 mph, leading to near whiteout conditions at times.

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At New York City's Central Park, 8 inches of snow was measured in six hours Monday morning.

That was more snow in one morning than they measured all of last season.

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Only 4.8 inches of snow fell from fall 2019 through spring 2020, NYC's fourth-least-snowy "season" on record and only 19% of average, according to data from the National Weather Service.

The combination of Winter Storm Orlena and mid-December's Winter Storm Gail – 10.5 inches – pushed New York City above its seasonal average of 25.8 inches.

It's quite the contrast from January 2020, when Central Park flirted with 70 degrees two days in a row – a feat Boston accomplished easily.

Even areas with more modest snow from the storm managed to easily top last winter's totals.

Last season was Philly's second least-snowy season and Washington's third-least-snowy season in records dating to the mid-1880s.

Orlena was the first time Reagan National Airport picked up a 2-inch snowfall since Feb. 20, 2019.

If a nor'easter did form last winter, it either was too far offshore and moved away quickly or lacked cold air.

Most often, low pressure tracked well inland instead of offshore, pumping warmer air into the East and taking snow off the table, particularly along the Interstate 95 urban corridor.

This winter, however, delivered a major Northeast snowstorm in mid-December, Winter Storm Gail, followed by Winter Storm Orlena.

Surprisingly in a climate that has warmed, snowfall appears to have increased along the Northeast Urban Corridor over time.

According to a February 2020 report from Climate Central, three of the top five cities that exhibited the largest gains in snowfall since 1970 – Atlantic City, New Jersey; New York City and Newark, New Jersey – were near the Northeast seaboard.

These I-95 corridor snowfall increases over the decades were most prevalent in winter and spring, rather than fall.

This may be due to a combination of factors, including warmer ocean water able to supply more moisture to winter storms, and more frequent blocking patterns in the upper atmosphere, such as the Greenland block, which ushers in cold air and can lead to slow-moving snowstorms in the East.

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