{"id":9909,"date":"2017-01-31T10:14:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=9909"},"modified":"2017-01-31T10:14:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T15:14:24","slug":"how-bad-has-the-winter-been-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2017\/01\/how-bad-has-the-winter-been-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"How bad has the winter been this year?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend John Feldt of Blue Water Outlook<\/em> has an interesting post (shown below) discussing the severity of the winter this year using the AWSSI index. \u00a0He explains it below and provides a link to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center’s web page describing winter severity across the US. \u00a0You can go to the MRCC’s page and check out the interactive map at\u00a0https:\/\/mrcc.isws.illinois.edu\/research\/awssi\/indexAwssi.jsp#info<\/a>. \u00a0For us in the Southeast? \u00a0No big surprise that we have been in a mild winter, with every month in the last year above normal in temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Winter seasons have significant societal impacts across all sectors ranging from direct human health and mortality to commerce, transportation, and education. The question \u201cHow severe was this winter?\u201d does not have a simple answer. At the very least, the severity of a winter is related to the intensity and persistence of cold weather, the frequency and amount of snow, and the amount and persistence of snow on the ground. The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI) was developed to objectively quantify and describe the relative severity of the winter season.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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The AWSSI is not limited to meteorological winter (December \u2010 February) but is intended to capture winter weather from its earliest occurrence to its last. The winter season begins when the first of any one of the following instances occurs:<\/p>\n

First measurable snowfall (>= 0.1 inch)
\n\u2022 Maximum temperature at or below 32\u00b0F
\n\u2022 December 1<\/p>\n

The winter season ends at the last occurrence of any of the following:
\n\u2022 Last measurable snowfall (>= 0.1 inch)
\n\u2022 Last day with 1 inch of snow on the ground
\n\u2022 Last day with a maximum temperature of 32\u00b0F or lower
\n\u2022 February 28\/29<\/p>\n

Daily scores are calculated based on scores assigned to temperature, snowfall, and snow depth thresholds. The daily scores are accumulated through the winter season, allowing a running total of winter severity in the midst of a season as well as a final, cumulative value characterizing the full season. Accumulations of the temperature and snow components of the index are computed separately and then added together for the total index. This allows comparison of the relative contribution of each to the total score.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Current Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend John Feldt of Blue Water Outlook has an interesting post (shown below) discussing the severity of the winter this year using the AWSSI index. \u00a0He explains it below and provides a link to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center’s web page describing winter severity across the US. \u00a0You can go to the MRCC’s page […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":9910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-climate-summaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9911,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909\/revisions\/9911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}