Could 2023-2024 Be Michigan’s Mildest Winter Ever?

So where is all of the snow? It's not just you- this winter has been milder than normal. Michiganders have been beside themselves on social media over this year's lack of snowfall, wondering if we're ever going to get some of the white fluffy stuff this year.

Just to give you an idea of how mild the weather is so far this season: If you compare last Christmas to this Christmas, we went from having 20+ inches of snow in 2022 to zero snow on Christmas day in 2023.

So, it's not just you feeling like our winter is never going to show up. According to Meteorologists in West Michigan, we have had the least snowy start to winter in recent Michigan history. In fact, December 2023 was the second least snowy month in our state's history.

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The lack of snow is starting to effect other things including the Great Lakes which have the least amount of ice they've seen in 50 years.

Normally by this time of year we'd see a lot of frozen water, but the inconsistent freezing has caused us to have what I like to call a "southern" winter. It's cold, but there is no snow or lasting ice in sight.

So can we expect it to ever actually be winter? Possibly. We're seeing that next week could bring a big snowstorm mid-week that would finally get us an amount of the white stuff that is worth writing home over. Whether it will kick start a pattern of winter weather or just be a one off, is yet to be seen.

Hopefully we'll get to use some of the creatively named MDOT snow plows this winter...