Charlotte’s snow drought sets record

CHARLOTTE — As of Monday, March 18, Charlotte has gone 779 days without snow, surpassing the record set in 1993 and as our winter draws to a close, we’re not likely to see things change anytime soon.

Though North Carolina isn’t necessarily known for its harsh winters, data from the North Carolina State Climate Office shows snow wasn’t always this rare in the Queen City.

The 1980s were a particularly snowy time for Charlotte but after that, Corey Davis, the assistant state climatologist, said our average snowfall has been steadily declining.

“Charlotte’s gone from averaging more than 8 inches of snow per year to now only about 3.5 inches per year,” he said. “One of the big reasons is if we look over the past decade, we’ve had a lot of years that were either snowless or really close to it.

Typically, the severity of Charlotte’s winters varies based on the weather patterns of each given year. La Niña weather patterns, like we saw in 2023 and 2022, typically bring warmer and drier winters to the Carolinas while El Niño weather patterns like 2024 are associated with wet winters and typically more snow.

“That is unusual to have an El Niño that was as strong as this one was, as wet as this was and to have no snow to show for it,” Davis said. “We went through the entire season not only with no wintery weather and no snow but really no good chances of any at all.”

While Davis said there’s likely not a single explanation for our disappearing snow, our warming temperatures seem to be playing a big role.

Since 1960, winter weather around Charlotte is warming about .9 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, much more quickly than spring and summer, which have warmed about .5 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, and fall, .3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. Davis believes that’s perhaps why most of our longest snow droughts have occurred since the 90s.

“That’s one of the main consequences of climate change. During those colder times of the day like overnight, and also those colder times in the year, we’re seeing the fastest warming happening,” Davis said. “One or two degrees in the atmosphere can make the difference between snow and freezing rain and just a cold rain.”

Fortunately for Charlotte, the region does not rely on yearly snowfall. As long as the winter comes with enough precipitation to replenish our rivers and soil for the spring, we don’t need snowmelt to avoid a drought.

Davis said our lack of snow itself isn’t a reason for concern as much as what it implies. Warmer winters mean an earlier start to allergy season and a heightened risk for more severe thunderstorms early in the year, like we saw in January.

Snow will likely return to Charlotte at some point, but Davis expects as long as our warming trend continues, we’ll see more winters like this one and fewer flakes in our skies.

“The winters that we have today are not the winters that we grew up with, the winters our parents grew up with,” he said.

>>> In the Instagram post below, see what life was like on January 29, 2022 - the last time Charlotte saw snow.

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