What happened to our snow?

Aside from a storm which dumped 6-10” throughout Mid-Michigan on Nov. 30, Flint residents have barely needed to use their snow brushes so far this winter.

Meteorologists have gone as far as calling it a “snow drought,” noting that some parts of the state are 10, 20, even more than 30 inches behind what would be a normal winter of snow through early January.

But that’s not the only interesting weather trend we’ve seen lately. Click through to read more…

Instead of snow, much of the precipitation that we got this winter has been in the form of rain. In Southeast Michigan, 47.70 inches of rain fell throughout 2011 – that’s one hundredth of an inch more than in the previous wettest year (1880) according to National Weather Service figures.

By the way, both short- and long-range forecasts say the amount of wintry weather should pick up. In fact, the areas of Michigan prone to lake-effect snow, such as Traverse City, Petoskey and Marquette, can expect blizzard conditions and several inches of snow the next couple of days, according to this chart from weather.com

Closer to home, Cars 108’s Flint forecast is more typical for early January.