Photo by Amy Cherry This winter scene, complete with snow covered roads and snow laden trees, was documented last year in St. Marys

By Amy Cherry

Staff Writer

Monday came and went quicker than most days as it was the shortest day of the year. December 21 also marked the first day of winter and the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Winter stormed into the east coast as this weekend’s nor’easter blanketed the mid-Atlantic region setting snowfall records from West Virginia to  New Jersey to Maryland, laying down between 23-24 inches of snow. Those areas hadn’t received that much snowfall since a blizzard of 1922.

For a pleasant change northwestern PA managed to stay out of much of the storm’s path only receiving a few inches of snow. The new fallen snow has pretty much ensured it will be a white Christmas for much of the region.

The winter season claims both the shortest days and the longest nights. It encompasses the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere, and June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere.

Typically the cold temperatures of the winter season are experienced in January.

Derived from the Latin phrase for "sun stands still”, solstices occur twice a year in the summer, around June 21 and again in the winter, around Dec. 21. This natural phenomenon is due in part to the tilt of the Earth as it orbits the sun.

Since ancient times people have marked the winter solstice with countless cultural and religious traditions, many centered around the theme of rebirth. Many of these traditions are observed with holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals and celebrations, all of which vary from culture to culture.

An example is with many mainland European countries who tend to recognize Martinmas or St. Martin's day on November 11, as the first calendar day of winter.

In the United States the heaviest snowfall season on record occurred in 1998-99 at Mt. Baker, Washington which recorded 1,140 inches of snow in a single winter season. Whereas the greatest cold wave in the U.S. occurred in 1899, of which records still stand for minimum temperature recorded.

Prospect Creek, Alaska recorded a minimum temperature of -80 F  in January 1971. Whereas the coldest temperature recorded in the continental states, happened in Embarrass, Minnesota at -64 degrees F which occurred and was verified in February 1996.

Among the more notable winter weather instances were;

• The Cold Wave of 1899 - In February 1899 temperatures dropped below zero in every U.S. state, even Florida where Tallahassee dropped to -2 degrees F.

• Blizzards of 1888 - In January, a winter storm hit the Great Plains, killing 237 people and huge numbers of livestock. The storm spread extreme cold and snow from Texas to Minnesota. In March, another storm hit New York and the Northeast. The snow dumped up to 55" of snow in some areas. Hurricane force winds created blizzards. In New York City alone, 200 died in the winter storm.

• Super Storm of 1993 or “Storm of the Century” - In March the storm hit the eastern U.S. dumping snow from Alabama to New York, breaking all single snowstorm records, dumping several feet of snow over several days.

• Blizzard of January 1996 and the most recent in February 2003

Meadville, PA ranks as the seventh snowiest city in the U.S., in terms of annual snowfall, measuring 111.2”. Topping the list was Truckee, CA with 203.4” of snow followed by Marquette, MI, Steamboat Springs, CO, Oswego, NY, Sault. Ste. Marie, MI, Syracuse, NY, Meadville, PA, Flagstaff, AZ, Watertown, NY and Muskegon, MI at 105.9”.

Among the coldest cities in the U.S. are Fairbanks and Anchorage, AK, Gunnison, CO, International Fall, MN, Duluth, MN, Caribou, ME, Butte, MT, Sault. Ste. Marie, MI, Grand Forks, ND and Alamosa, CO.