Using data to decipher seasonal snowfall patterns 🧮

Premium update #30

As a meteorology major at SUNY Oswego, I had to take around 10 different math classes.

Ranging from calculus I-III, differential equations, and trigonometry, my days were often spent summing integrals rather than summing the number of parties that I would be attending 🙃

Meteorology is a demanding major and not for the faint of heart… or party animal!

The atmosphere is a complex and dynamic system governed by physical principles and mathematical relationships. In order to successfully graduate and become a meteorologist, a foundational understanding of this information is critical.

In order to graduate with a math minor, I only needed to take two additional math classes beyond what was required for meteorology, so I said what the heck…

One of those classes was statistics. While I can’t say I use calculus to arrive at my forecasts, I can say that I commonly apply statistical techniques to uncover trends in meteorological data and add some historical climate context to my write-ups.

This information can be quite powerful — past weather data over many years can be used to tell a story, particularly since Mother Nature likes to repeat herself!

In this short blog, I’ll show you how I used 8 decades’ worth of historical snowfall data to uncover the peaks-and-valleys of snowfall potential for this winter ☃️