The Great Snow of 2022/23

I put together this table from a spreadsheet I maintain of publicly available National Weather Service meteorological data. Data are provisional and require verification. Nevertheless, the snowfall so far in winter 2022/23 in Idyllwild would place it seventh in recorded history (reliable data collection started in 1943). Perhaps more significantly, we have received the most snow in a winter since 1963/64, a span of 59 years. So rather than being a “once-in-a-generation” event, this may prove to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for most Idyllwild residents. The table also shows that with another few inches, this could be the biggest snow season since the 1940s!

Although our perceptions may have been skewed by some extremely dry winters in the past decade, major snowfalls are not as rare as many current residents might think. This is the third time this century that Idyllwild has surpassed 60 inches of snow in a winter (62.8 inches in 2000/01, and 62.4 inches in 2010/11), so 60+ inch winters might be considered to occur roughly once every decade.

Major snowfall months have also occurred recently, in winters that did not otherwise end up with exceptional annual totals. February 2011 recorded 45.5 inches, and there were 45.5 inches in March 2006. By comparison, approximately 42 inches were recorded in February 2023 (provisional data). Of course, this February was notable in that roughly 80% of the total fell all in the last week of the month, with no respite for significant melting.

These data only reflect snowfall measurements, and do not incorporate rainfall totals. Broadly speaking it is clear that snowfall has become much more variable in the past decade, ranging from extremely dry (<10 inches) to, obviously, very snowy.

Note that data for the high country are dramatically different from those for Idyllwild, and generally sadly lacking, other than meteorological records for Long Valley (8600 ft elevation) since the 1960s. For example, although Long Valley currently has about 5 feet of snow, publicly available records for the 1970s show that Long Valley averaged 119 inches (almost 10 feet!) per winter back then.

The top ten snowfall totals by winter for Idyllwild are as follows:

108.1 inches  1948/49

107.5 inches  1943/44

77.1 inches  1952/53

76.1 inches  1963/64

74.9 inches  1961/62

72.7 inches  1951/52

71.8 inches  2022/23 (to date)

69.4 inches  1981/82

65.5 inches  1957/58

63.3 inches  1954/55

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