A white Christmas or Thanksgiving? Here’s a list of big Columbus snow events
Holiday snowfall in the South is a dream for many.
A Thanksgiving snowball fight after you’ve finished a filling meal might be the most perfect thing. And who doesn’t dream of a white Christmas morning?
Holiday flakes don’t usually fall in the Columbus area, but it has happened before.
Historically, more than three inches of snowfall in a single day is a rare event, according to National Weather Service data.
Snow is most likely to fall in January, said Nick Morgan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.
But historically, the biggest snowfalls in Columbus have occurred in February.
Thanksgiving
The National Weather Service’s Peachtree City office has published climate information for every Thanksgiving day in their records. The holiday has been celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November since Congress passed a resolution in 1941. Before that, the holiday was celebrated on the last Thursday of the month.
No snow has fallen on Thanksgiving in Columbus, according to the National Weather Service’s website.
Christmas
Columbus has seen snow only twice at Christmas. The highest snowfall total was a trace amount — basically nothing — that fell in 2010.
“Technically, it’s a white Christmas in Columbus,” The Ledger wrote Christmas night.
The big ones
Since 1893, the Columbus area has seen daily snowfall totals of three or more inches seven times, according to the National Weather Service. A whopping 11 inches fell Feb. 9, 1973. It was part of a snowstorm that ended up dumping 14 inches of snow on the city over a multi-day period.
“Pot-holed roads and highways, scraped and dented cars and residents sporting casts and bandages will be ever-present reminders for weeks to come of the ‘big snow of ‘73,” the Columbus Enquirer wrote.
Other major single-day snowfall totals include:
- 6.5 inches fell on March 1, 2009
- 5 inches fell Feb. 26, 1914
- 4.5 inches fell Feb. 23, 1901
- 4 inches fell Feb. 25, 1914
- 4 inches fell Jan. 28, 1899
- 3 inches fell Feb. 10, 1973