Winter Came Early!

Snow on October 4th?

Many people in Central Ohio saw snowflakes on the first Saturday morning of October! The Port Columbus Airport (CMH) recorded a trace amount of snow and confirmed that the flakes were indeed flying! This makes for an extremely short time between snowflakes for the year since our last snow fell on April 15, 2014! This beats last years short snow-less time by several weeks. In 2013, at CMH the last snow of the spring was April 1 and the first snow of fall came on October 23. Two years in a row with April and October snows is not a record but it is uncommon for us to have such short times between snowfalls.

Another form of precipitation that fell on Saturday was graupel. This is often mistaken as hail, however, it is formed completely different. You will also notice that graupel is soft unlike hail and is always small (pea size or smaller). Graupel doesn't cause damage that large hail can cause and the graupel occurs when the atmosphere is very cold at low levels. When hail forms it is lifted up very high into a thunderstorm where it can get into the cold temperatures of the atmosphere and freeze. This pattern is repeated until the updraft can no longer support the ice ball. With graupel, the snow flakes never have the opportunity to melt all the way. This forms a small ice pellet, similar to sleet, that is soft with a small outer shell.

Graupel Formation Image

Hail Formation Image

What Now?

As we continue into October, the cold shots should become more intense with time. I do not think this is our last encounter with snow for this month and some forecasts suggest that winter could get off to an early start in the coming months. Our Fall foliage here in Ohio should peak between the 10th-20th depending on where you are in the state. Expect a lot of ups and downs this month in regards to the temperature. At this time of year air masses are very progressive and don't tend to hold for very long. That being said, when all is said and done, I do expect October to end colder than normal for the entire month. I hope you enjoyed the snow and look forward to more to come because I sure do!!