It's been a relatively mild winter so far...until January, when snow and bitter cold temperatures were the norm.
Buffalo National Weather Service Meteorologist Jason Alumbaugh said the month is wrapping up to be the seventh-snowiest January on record.
"December was mild and very much without snow at all. Then we had this pattern switch, basically in the first week of January," he said. "We had a big lake effect. That was on the sixth. That gave us 17.8 inches of snow. Then on the seventeenth, a bigger widespread snow. We ended up with 17.6 inches of snow that day. So there were these two big events this month, both right around the same amount, that really helped boost our snow totals this month."
Alumbaugh said that also helps put Western New York a bit above the average snowfall for the season.
"For our seasonal total, we're sitting at 62.8 inches. Our normal is 59.9. So that puts us at 2.9 inches above the seasonal average for this time," he said. "And if you go back to last year at this time, we were at just 44 inches. So quite a different story, this year compared to last year."
He said the other thing that's notable about this January is that Sunday was the first day we didn't have any snow. He said every other day in January had at least a trace of snowfall.
