Rochester sets record for warmest winter. Snowfall amounts were low, too

Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
·2 min read

Welcome to spring, Rochester. At least in the meteorological sense. Anyone who has spent time in and around the Flower City knows there’s still a chance for some snow (though that’s unlikely to happen in the next week).

This was the warmest winter (December through February) on record for Rochester, at 34.9 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo. It was also the second warmest February on record for Rochester, with an average temperature warmer than freezing at 34.7 degrees. That’s a 7.3-degree departure from normal for the month.

December 2023 was the second-warmest December on record, at 39.9 degrees. January was the coldest month this winter, with an average temperature of 30.1 degrees.

Rochester winters have been warming and now have an average of 15 more winter days with temperatures above normal than in 1970, according to data from Climate Central.

Melting snow creates a shallow river on the Drumlin Trail at Chimney Bluffs State Park.
Melting snow creates a shallow river on the Drumlin Trail at Chimney Bluffs State Park.

Rochester NY snowfall totals

This was also a strong El Niño winter, which typically creates warmer, drier conditions in the northern United States. And this winter certainly aligned with the warmth, though Rochester is just a tenth of an inch off normal precipitation for January and February.

Where Rochester really falls behind on the precipitation front is snow. Only 8.1 inches of snow fell in February, a departure of 15.8 inches from normal. More telling, Rochester is 39.3 inches behind normal snowfall for the season.

More: How much snow fell in Rochester region? The latest snowfall totals

As it stands, Buffalo leads the way in the race for the Golden Snowball, a friendly competition between upstate cities, with 59.6 inches. Syracuse sits in second place, with 44.9 inches and Rochester is next, at 42.5 inches.

At this point in the snow season, the normal average for Rochester is 81 inches.

Winter was mild in Rochester. 2023 had even less snow.

Lionel Rodriguez, of Geneseo, pushes his granddaughter, Ophelia Rodriguez, 1, of Henrietta on a spinning seat at Veterans Memorial Park in Henrietta, NY. Area residents got outside to enjoy the unseasonable warm weather. Today's temperature recorded at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport reached a high of 73 degrees at 1 p.m. breaking the previous record of 66 degrees that was set in 2000.

This winter, while bringing record-breaking warmth, is still ahead of last winter’s famously paltry snowfall. By the end of February 2023, only 29.9 inches of snow had fallen in Rochester, ending with 50.4 inches, roughly half of the normal snowfall at that point.

The average temperature for February 2023 was just 31.8 degrees, nearly 3 degrees cooler than in 2024. So this year has been warmer, but snowier, than where we were at this time a year ago.

More: Which upstate NY cities are leading the snowfall charts this winter? Here's where Rochester ranks

Could we already be done with snow in Rochester? History says no, with some of the city’s largest snowstorms coming in March. In recent memory, storms in March of 2014, 2017 and 2018 brought more than a foot of snow.

So, while meteorological winter may be done, it’s probably not quite time to put the snow shovel away just yet.

— Steve Howe covers weather, climate and lake issues for the Democrat and Chronicle and is ready to bring more varied content to you in 2024. Have any insight into Rochester weather? Share with him at showe@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Weather in Rochester NY: Record set for warmest winter