Where is the Cold and snow that was forecasted?

[Extremewxlover]

I rememeber it was just in November that I was asking, when was it going to get below freezing. Then in January We had 2 weeks of freezing weather with a little bit of snow. I thought it would last forever than all of of a sudden the meteorologists kept inching the temps higher and higher with every forecast.

How come there was no moisture with that 2-week cold spell?

How is it that the coldest start to a January will end up being just a January above normal?
Even though we still got 2 months, it almost seem like winter is gone? I even see some green onions in my back yard.

Though this winter is not as those of the past years, when Nashville would constantly get above 70, 40 degrees even felt two warm a couple of weeks ago. i was getting use to the 16 degree weather by 7pm, it really didn't even feel that cold?

So what happened to the winter forecatsed to rival those of the 70's and 80's, specifically Janaury?

[Crockett]

JMHO, but I think anyone who actually said this winter would rival the winters of the late '70s was probably injecting a great deal of wish-casting into his predictions. Sure, there were/are some climatological similarities between this winter and one or two of those late '70s winters, but to say that this winter would rival those? That would have taken an extreme leap of faith.

The reason we didn't see much moisture in the first two weeks of January is because the same northerly flow that is required to deliver those temps to us is a dry flow. In our region, we rely on the Gulf to provide the moisture that powers storm systems. If we're under an arctic regime that doesn't relax long enough to allow the Gulf to get involved, we're going to be mostly dry with the exception of an occasional clipper system. Sadly, the only time that happened in that 2-week period earlier in the month, we didn't have the energy in the right places to capitalize and wound up with what was, in effect, a clipper.

Those are my thoughts and I'm sure others can expand on them and do a much more thorough job explaining the dynamics of what we've experienced thus far this winter...a winter which, I might add, is no where close to being over.

[CookevilleWeatherGuy]

How is it that the coldest start to a January will end up being just a January above normal?

I just checked our NWS COOP station numbers and we're 5° BELOW normal for January. Not sure where you're coming up your above-normal assumption.

Granted I'd like to see some snow, too...but as others have already said, record cold won't equal a whole bunch of snow. It'll take cold air combined with a gulf systems to get us a decent-sized snow.

[SnowSeek]

Wasn't this the coldest 40 day start of winter since the 70s?  I am almost 100% certain I read that this was one of the coldest first halves of winter in decades.

It's not that uncommon to cycle through a warm period before ending with a bang.  I would say this is an epic winter if we go 5 weeks cold 2 warm 5 cold.  Catch a snowstorm or 2 in there