Nearly 70% of the country blanketed in snow; largest snow cover of the winter season

EXTENSIVE SNOW COVER ACROSS THE COUNTRY (31 JANUARY 2010-NOHRSC)

The United States recorded its most extensive snow cover of the winter season on Sunday.

A major winter left a swath of moderate to heavy snow and ice from Southern Colorado and New Mexico to the Mid Atlantic states over the last several days which helped expand the snow cover across the United States from 47.5% coverage on Wednesday January 27th to the largest snow cover of the winter season of 69.7% coverage Sunday January 31st, according to the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC).

What is fairly unusual about this extensive snow cover is how far south it extends. Snow cover was noted Sunday morning across parts Central Texas to Southern Arkansas and Northern Mississippi eastward into South Carolina.

The last time the snow cover was this extensive this winter season was on Christmas morning (December 25, 2009) after a series of winter storms helped expand snow cover across 63% of the country.

Below is a graph of the snow cover trend during the month of January 2010. Notice the major melt away of snow cover during mid January across the country. This was as a result of a major warm- up across much of the Central and Eastern United States, which we can call the January thaw after a majority of the country endured very cold temperatures during the first two weeks of January.

The 69.7% snow coverage across the United States is also the largest in at least 7 years and or since NOHRSC began keeping snow coverage data in 2003!