Snow's giving us the cold shoulder

Snowless starts to winter around here are nothing new, but so far this one has been absolutely rumor-less.

Given the almost immeasurable numbers of computer model runs around the world, a snow rumor seven or 10 days out is all but inevitable.

Our favorite local chat board, phillywx.com, has talk of the models throwing a few bones in the long range, but nothing that would qualify as a bona-fide rumor, let alone a threat.

The temperature at Philadelphia International Airport got down to 12 at 7:16 a.m., but this week's cold will be short-lived, and even though more cold is likely next week, if a storm system is going to mine it, it hasn't asserted itself yet.

Thus the snow drought may well persist into mid-month. No measurable snow has fallen so far this season in Philadelphia.

In the period of snow record, which dates to 1884 in Philadelphia, 14 seasons have been snowless through Jan. 5 – a little better than once a decade.

That list includes 1973, and the 1972-73 season ended up being the only winter without so much as a tenth of an inch in Philly.

But as Mitchell Gaines at the National Weather Service points out, we also have 1966 on the list. That year the first measurable snow didn't occur until Jan. 22, and over 2 feet fell before winter ended.