COLUMBIA, S.C. — We saw something we haven't seen in quite some time here in the Midlands this year: Snow.
But, does that mean we have been seeing really cold air this winter? Well, the answer might surprise you.
Florence resident Marie Mcravin says that even with the wintry weather she has her doubts, "I wouldn't say we are colder this year, it is we just actually got snow".
Tim White, a resident of Columbia thinks the opposite might be true though saying "It seems like it might be a little bit colder than some of the years in the past, its been six or seven years since we saw snow on the ground".
Surprisingly though even with multiple rounds of winter weather, our winter this year is running much warmer than last year. Our average high is around 5° warmer than last winter here across the Midlands.
"That would be a little bit of a surprise, although a couple of years in the past I do remember it being warm in December and that has followed the trend" said White.
And what a trend we saw this year. This December was one of the warmest on record here in Columbia with an average high over ten degrees warmer than what we would end up seeing in January.
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But that doesn’t mean January was cold by any means, even with our winter weather. The traditionally coldest month of the year really didn’t bring us much cold weather, we only saw one morning in the teens which leaves us well below our normal amount of frigid days.
As we look towards February outside of a brief cooldown possible in the middle of the month, things look to be rather mild if not warm as indicated on the latest from the Climate Prediction Center.
