Snow: More milestones
For the first time in 36 winters, an inch or more of snow has fallen on 12 calendar days in Philly.
The 1.1 inches of snow measured officially at Philadelphia International Airport/National Park on Wednesday, nudged the seasonal total to 59.5 inches, within a decent pompadour of 5 feet.
That solidifies this winter's hold on third place in the 130-year period of record keeping, giving it a decent shot at No. 2, 1995-96, at 65.5 inches.
But it would take an unprecedented late-winter blitz to catch No. 1, 2009-10, 78.7, those wild storm rumors aside.
Indisputably this has been an historic winter by any number of measures.
Since Dec. 8, at least one inch of snow has been recorded on 12 calendar days, or about every four days, on average.
Tony Gigi, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, informs that those 12 days match the dirty dozen of the very snowy winter of 1977-78, 54.9 inches.
Those 12 also represented the most since 1917-18, the record-holder with 17 separate inch-plus days, the last in an unprecedented sequence of very snowy winters.
Alan Weiss, a weather savvy reader who has assembled some remarkable snow statistics, points out that January and February marked the first time that snow exceeded 20 inches in each of two straight months.
In addition, the nine separate storms of 2 inches or more is unprecedented.
We may never see the likes of this winter again, and we are not sure how many would want to.