Snow Daze: Winter Has Packed a Wallop

Winter has been a wild ride for the denizens of Wayne County.

Between subzero days with periods of intense and prolonged snowfall and spring-like efforts with steady drizzle and 50-degree temperatures, residents have been left in a state of confusion.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Sid Delmore, a private snowplowing contractor from St. Clair Shores who works within Macomb County and the Grosse Pointes. “It seems like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the entire month of February. It was crazy.”

But Wyandotte businessman Michael Clarke sees it differently.

He owns a private snow removal service and said every time the flakes fall, he sees dollar signs.

"I'm sort of different from everyone else," he said. "When they are cranky about inches of snow, that's when I'm the happiest. I know I've got a good deal of work to do on those days."

According to statistics provided by the National Weather Service, this was the second snowiest February on record with 31.7 inches of snow. Only 1908, which boasted 38.4 inches, could beat that.

February also saw six days of significant snowfall totaling more than two inches, with the biggest amounts coming on Feb. 1 (6.3 inches), Feb. 5 (4.8 inches) and Feb. 20 (8.2 inches).

“What was funny was that they kept touting that (Feb. 1) storm as the biggest blizzard to hit the area in years and yet it was that snow later in the month (Feb. 20) that really took people by surprise,” said Sammy Waechli of Grosse Pointe Farms. “Either way, we’ve had more snow than I can really remember having in awhile this winter.”

Despite the lengthy cold snaps that have plagued the area, however, February’s average temperature was 24.8 degrees, only 2.5 degrees less than average.

March hasn’t been much of an improvement. So far this month, the metropolitan Detroit area has seen 4.5 inches of snow. Temperatures have averaged 29.8 degrees–2.6 degrees less than average.

Here are the highlights of the winter of 2010-11:

• The Feb. 20-21 snowstorm ranks 24th on the list of all-time heaviest snowstorms with 10.1 inches in some areas.
• The highest temperature recorded in February was 54 degrees on Feb. 18. The lowest was -5 degrees on Feb. 10.
• The average high for the month of February was 34.4 degrees. The average low was 20.0 degrees.
• The average high temperature for January was 31.1 degrees. The average low was 17.8 degrees.
• The snowiest day of January came on Jan. 11 (4.7 inches of snow). No other day during the month recorded more than two inches of snow. However, for the month, 17.9 inches of snow were recorded.
• The warmest day in January was 53 degrees on Jan. 1. The coldest was 2 degrees on Jan. 24.