La PORTE — Weather observers are confirming what many people, their backs still aching after shoveling the walk yet again, already suspected.
We’ve had a lot of snow so far this winter.
National Weather Service observers, taking measurements at the city’s water plant on Lake Street, say the total from the start of December through Wednesday is more than 106 inches.
The highest snow total in La Porte over the past 60 years was 125.6 inches in the winter of 1977-78, according to National Weather Service records.
Residents saw measurable snowfall 11 of the first 17 days of this year, Water Department Director Todd Taylor told the Board of Public Works and Safety on Wednesday.
“It really adds up,” he said.
Snowfall in January so far this month was 55.7 inches, he said. The total in December was 50.4 inches, Taylor said.
While the total of more than 8 feet so far this year is impressive, the impact has been lessened by significant thaws and rain.
Temperatures ranged from 16 below zero on Jan. 2 to a high of 57 on Jan. 11, according to Taylor.
While the temperature earlier this week fell again, to minus 2 on Tuesday, a slight warming trend is expected to bring rain Sunday and Monday and temperatures in the low 40s.
La Porte County frequently bears the brunt of lake-effect snow produced by northerly winds off Lake Michigan, according to meteorologist Geoffrey Heidelberger with the weather service office in North Judson.
“When these single bands set up, that’s when you get a very intensive snowfall over a short duration,” he said.
The storm Tuesday and into early Wednesday hit Porter County before shifting to the east and losing its intensity, according to Heidelberger. Lake-effect snow totals can vary widely even from one side of town to the other, he said.
At the recording station in La Porte, this storm totaled 5.8 inches of snow.