A REVIEW OF A COOLER, DRIER 2022

Hey, wait a second…it was a hot summer!

True. And the year will finish as a warmer-than-average year. But it was the coolest year in Youngstown since 2015. Compared to average, January was the most abnormally cold month as we endured a long stretch of sunfreezing temperatures during the second half of the month.

It was not as wet this year. In fact, it got pretty dry over the summer. Not a severe drought locally, but we did string together several drier-than-average months in a row. Overall, it was the driest year since 2009.

The cool weather that settled in during late September and early October, along with the relatively dry weather led to a real nice foliage season this year.

THE BIG WEATHER STORIES

September 4th, Sunday of Labor Day weekend, was quite eventful! Big, slow-moving storms rolled through late in the afternoon and resulted in not-only flash flooding in some places, but an isolated, brief EF0 tornado in Boardman.

#2 on my list just occurred a week ago! A powerful cold front rolled across the area the morning of December 23 and was accompanied by a modest amount of snow. The bigger story was the wind and the wicked cold. Temperatures were below zero all afternoon and the wind chill bottomed out at -31 early Friday evening. Sunday was the coldest Christmas Day since we had the coldest on record in 1983.

Finally, #3 on my list is the struggles we endued during the second half of the winter of 2021-2022. We had a few sizeable snow events and the end of this stretch was marked by a heavy rain event in mid-February. The rain, combined with snowmelt led to serious river flooding throughout the region.

The Mahoning River at Youngstown had one of its highest crests on record.

What are your memories of 2022’s weather happenings?

Happy New Year Everyone!