Winter Storms 2016-17: The Season So Far

Jonathan Belles
Published: February 9,2017
Winter storm season 2016-17 has had a rapid turnaround from slow start in November. It kicked into full gear from mid-December through January.
At least one named winter storm was active in the first 25 days of January, accounting for six of the storms this winter.
The season has produced 13 named winter storms so far, and many of the most recent winter storms from mid-January onward have arrived near or earlier than average. Winter storm naming by The Weather Channel and weather.com began in the 2012-13 season.
(MORE: How Winter Storms Are Named)

Winter Storm Tracks Through January

Winter Storm	Main Region Impacted	Arrival Compared to Average (2012-2016)
Argos	Midwest/Northeast	Late
Blanche	Midwest	Late
Caly	Coast-to-Coast	Late
Decima	Coast-to-Coast	Late
Europa	Northern Plains	Near Average
Fortis	East Coast	Late
Gregory	Northwest	Slightly Late
Helena	Southeast	Near Average
Iras	Northwest	Slightly Early
Jupiter	Coast-to-Coast	Early
Kori	West Coast	Early
Leo	West Coast	Early
Maya	Coast-to-Coast	Near Average

Climatology Data Provided by Tom Niziol, The Weather Channel

(MORE: The Science Behind Winter Storm Naming)
Here is a brief summary of storms that have occurred so far this winter.

Winter Storm Argos, Nov. 17-21, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: 54.5 inches near Redfield, New York

Winter storm Argos traveled from the central Rockies on Nov. 17 to the Midwest delivering more than 2 feet of snow in Minnesota, Vermont and Upstate New York on Nov. 20-21, where one location east of Lake Ontario reported more than 4.5 feet of snow.
Argos was the heaviest snowstorm of record dating to 1905 in Binghamton, New York, where 27.6 inches was recorded at the Greater Binghamton Airport in a 72-hour period ending around midday on Nov. 22. The previous snowstorm of record there was a 24.4-inch three-day storm from Feb. 18-20, 1972.
Winds gusted 50 to 80 mph in the Midwest and the Central Plains, before creating white out conditions on Interstate 81 near Syracuse, New York, as Argos moved toward Canada.
In Minnesota alone, 450 vehicle crashes occurred due to snow and ice, and three deaths were reported. In all, Argos took six lives in Minnesota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Winter Storm Argos left its mark on much of the country. Satellite shows snow draped from Minnesota to Wyoming and Utah, taken November 19, 2016
( NASA/Aqua/MODIS)

Winter Storm Blanche, Nov. 27 - Dec. 1, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: Estimated 62 inches south-southeast of Elk Mountain, Wyoming

Blanche developed into a record strong low pressure system in the Dakotas for the month of November as it moved eastward from the Rockies across the Upper Midwest and later into northern New England.
Snow fell as far south as Arizona and New Mexico with 10 inches or more falling in both states.
Numerous highways and school districts were closed along the northern tier of the country.
The center of Blanche deepened so much that record low pressures were set from Valentine, Nebraska, to Grand Forks and Fargo, North Dakota, according to David Roth of the Weather Prediction Center. Pressure on Nov. 28 dropped to 975.4 millibars in Fargo, North Dakota. Pressure fell even lower in parts of rural southeastern North Dakota.
(MORE: Winter Storm Central)

Winter Storm Caly, Dec. 7-12, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: 46.1 inches at Galena Summit

Caly was a cross-country traffic trouble maker that traveled from Oregon across the Northern Rockies into the Midwest. The Portland, Oregon, area received 0.75 inches of ice, the first of many wintry weather events in the Willamette Valley this season. One to nearly 4 feet of snow fell in portions of the Rockies as Caly rode over the mountains.
Caly's snow brought much of the Midwest to a halt. More than 1,300 flights were canceled in Chicago's airports and 200 flights were canceled in Detroit, where a Delta flight slid off the runway. Hundreds of crashes occurred in Minnesota.

Delta Airlines plane that slid off a runway in Detroit Dec. 11, 2016.
(Isaac Price/Twitter)

By Dec. 12, Caly brought some cities in the Northeast, including New York City, their first snow before it moved into the Atlantic.
Nine people were killed on roads made more dangerous by snow and ice in Oregon, Iowa, Michigan and Maine.

Winter Storm Decima, Dec. 13-18, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: 35.4 inches in Ketchum, Idaho
• Top Ice Amount: 0.88 inches in Springfield, Oregon

Decima took a track similar to Caly, through the Pacific Northwest, southeastward into the central plains and then northeastward into the Northeast.
Decima brought wind, freezing rain and snow to the Northwest stopping traffic from moving for two days in some areas. More than three-quarters of an inch of ice fell in Eugene followed by two days of mainly sub-freezing weather led to a standstill.
Hundreds of accidents including an eight-car pileup occurred in Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska as Decima accelerated toward the northeast.
This mid-December storm caused a major pile-up in Maryland after a tanker explosion on Interstate 95 on Dec. 17.

Winter Storm Europa, Dec. 21-26, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: 32 inches at the top of Mammoth Mountain
• Top Ice Amount: 0.70 inches near Alexandria, Minnesota

Europa tracked from northern California, across the Central Rockies and into the Northern Plains during the Christmas weekend.
Europa created most of its impacts in portions of the Northern Plains, especially near Bismarck, North Dakota, where a snow emergency was declared. Blizzard conditions occurred across much of the Dakotas, and more than a foot of snow fell across North Dakota.
Winds gusted to more than 70 mph in five states across the Northern Plains, and brought heavy snow from the West to the Midwest.
More than 200 miles of I-90 were closed in South Dakota due to snow and ice.

Snow-covered Weiser, Idaho is photographed on Friday, Dec. 23, 2016 during Winter Storm Europa.
(gandolfjohn/instagram)

Winter Storm Fortis, Dec. 28-30, 2016

• Top Snowfall Amount: 29.0 inches in Kingfield, Maine

This winter storm was rapidly intensifying and it moved across Cape Cod northward toward Maine and into eastern Canada, dropping from a central pressure of 1004 millibars at 1 p.m. Dec. 29 to 976 millibars at 1 a.m. Dec. 30, a fall of 28 millibars in 12 hours.
Fortis clobbered Maine with heavy snow and brought gusty winds to much of New England. Fortis even brought thundersnow to portions of Connecticut, New York and Maine.
More than 100,000 people lost power in Maine on Dec. 30, and one person lost control of their vehicle, hit a tree and lost their life during the storm.

Winter Storm Fortis in the process of intensifying near the coast of Maine on December 30, 2016.

Winter Storm Gregory, Jan. 1-3, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 17 inches at Mount Hood Meadows, Oregon
• Top Ice Amount: 0.25 inches in Winslow, Poland and near Jonesboro, Maine

Winter Storm Gregory's impacts straddled the U.S.  border with Canada, but where it did fall on the U.S. side of the border, it fell in feet. At least a foot of snow was reported from Washington and Oregon to Minnesota. Ice and snow were also reported in parts of the Northeast.
Gregory kicked off a three and a half week onslaught of winter storms that kept going until Jan. 25 when Leo dissipated.

Winter Storm Helena, Jan. 3-7, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 56 inches in Boreal and Soda Springs, California
• Top Ice/Sleet Amount: 2.0 inches near Falls Lake, North Carolina 

Winter Storm Helena will be known for the mess of snow and ice it left across the Central Plains and Southeast in early January, but it also brought feet of snow to the Pacific Northwest and Rockies.
Schools and roads across the South and East from Alabama to Virginia were closed for days after a dose of freezing rain, sleet and snow. Days of sub-40 degree weather kept some roads icy as much as five days after the ice fell.
Blizzard conditions with snow, sleet and low visibility were reported eastern Virginia.
Snow also fell along parts of the Northeast I-95 corridor before Helena moved out to sea. New York City picked up 5.1 inches of snow from Helena, while Boston saw 7.2 inches of snowfall.

Snowfall for January 5-8, 2017 including snow from Winter Storm Helena.

Winter Storm Iras, Jan. 6-10, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: Estimated 48 inches near Driggs at the Grassy Lake Snotel, Wyoming
• Top Ice Amount: 0.75-1 inch of ice in Creswell, Oregon

Winter Storm Iras traveled across the Pacific Northwest southward into the Central Plains and then back north into the Midwest.
Iras impacted numerous large cities in the West including Eugene and Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake City, and Grand Junction, Colorado. Portions of the Northwest picked up more than a half-inch of ice, some of which was later covered by snow. Eugene, Oregon, saw more than four inches of snow on top of three-quarters of an inch of ice, making roads treacherous.
Blowing snow brought traffic to a standstill in southern Minnesota as Iras moved through the Midwest. Minnesota troopers responded to more than 100 traffic incidents as a result.

Traffic moves slowly along Interstate 5 through Eugene and Springfield, Ore. area as a winter storm moves through the Willamette Valley Sunday Jan. 8, 2017. Snow and sleet are making for treacherous roads in Oregon, with the state police warning that they can't keep up with all the crashes.
(Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard via AP)

(MORE: Portland, Oregon, May Be America's Most Winter-Fatigued City in 2016-2017)

Winter Storm Jupiter, Jan. 11-19, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 94.5 inches near Encampment at the Old Battle Snotel, Wyoming

Winter Storm Jupiter was a multi-faceted storm that had wide-reaching impacts from coast to coast and border to border.
Heavy thundersnow was reported in Oregon and Washington Jan. 9-12, totaling more than a foot of snow in the Portland area. This was the biggest single-day snowstorm for Portland in 22 years. More than 12 feet of snow was deposited in portions of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
Avalanches and heavy snow closed some parks and ski areas even had to close because of the staggering amount of snow.
Jupiter dropped more than 4 feet of snow in four western states, and snow and ice fell as far south as New Mexico and northern Texas.
During the weekend of Jan. 14-15, heavy icing from Jupiter left a mess of downed trees and power outages across parts of the Plains, namely the Texas panhandle, northwest Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Parts of northwest Oklahoma and west Kansas saw ice accumulations of up to an inch thick.
Jan. 16-19, more ice and snow fell across portions of the Midwest and Northeast. In general one-tenth to a third of an inch of ice fell in the Midwest. Jupiter began to lose steam in the Northeast, but not before dropping a half-inch layer of ice on Fairfield, New York. About 2-7 inches of snow fell in New York and across northern New England.

Taken Sunday morning of January 15, 2017, in Canadian, Texas, a home at the corner of Purcell and Sixth streets is surrounded by dismembered trees and branches. Ice-clad power lines lined the entire city, and many were reported down.
(The Canadian Record)

Winter Storm Kori, Jan. 17-25, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: Up to 30 inches at Mammoth Mountain, California
• Top Ice Amount: Up to 2 inches in North Bonneville and Snowden, Washington

Winter Storm Kori was a relatively short-lived system, but despite that it had major impacts in the West. Kori paired up with one of a few powerful atmospheric rivers that pounded the California coastline.
On the northern side, ice accumulations 1-2 inches thick encased some locations in northern Oregon and southern Washington, namely the Columbia River Gorge and upper Hood River Valley.
On the southern side, more than a foot of rain fell in parts of central California, leading to hundreds of reports of flooding and swollen rivers. Two feet of snow fell in parts of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Cabins were washed away in a burn area near Santa Barbara, California, after heavy rain moved through. Wind gusts up to 50 mph pushed over trees where soil had gotten super saturated in central California.
Kori, along with the abundance of winter storms this season, effectively ended the long-term exceptional drought across northern and central California and parts of Oregon and Nevada.
Schools were closed as far south as Flagstaff, Arizona, due to heavy snow.

Winter Storm Leo, Jan. 22-25, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 60.5 inches near Incline Village, Nevada

Leo brought more snow and unwanted rain to parts of California and Nevada on Jan. 22-23 before moving across the Rockies and Plains states and into the Midwest by Jan. 25.
Schools were closed in Reno, Nevada, and Flagstaff, Arizona, due to heavy snowfall.
Due to the heavy rain in the weeks before this storm with additional rainfall on top of that, trees fell and rockslides were reported.
At least five people were killed in Winter Storm Leo, mainly due to floodwaters.
Numerous accidents were reported in the Midwest and Northern Plains as snow made roads dangerous. A 100-mile stretch of interstate in South Dakota was even shut down. A few spots in Nebraska saw 20 inches of snow.

Winter Storm Maya, Feb. 5-7, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 62.5 inches in East Glacier Park, Montana

We are working on the recap for this storm. For more details, click here.

Winter Storm Niko, Feb. 7-9, 2017

• Top Snowfall Amount: 19 inches in East Hartford, Connecticut and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. 

Niko is an active winter storm. For more details, click here.
Our meteorologists and writers Sean Breslin, Ada Carr, Eric Chaney, and Pam Wright contributed content to this winter storms summary. 

MORE: Winter Storm Helena

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