With spring 1 month away, some wintry US cities are losing the snow game

07:16

Snow winners and losers

Who has seen the snow during this unseasonably warm winter? FOX Weather shows where the snow winners are despite the country seeing near record-low snowfall.

Most of the U.S. has seen near-record-low snowfall this winter, and the places that have been buried by it are few and far between.

"For the most part, we have had this almost full spring throughout winter," said FOX Weather Meteorologist Stephen Morgan. "Temperatures have been cooler, but overall, yeah, a lot of folks would say it's been a weak or wimpy winter."

Here's a closer look at the U.S. cities among the winners and losers so far this winter.

Northeast

The Northeast is studded with losers in the snow game. The snowiest city in the U.S., Syracuse, New York, is 5 feet of snow behind for the season. The fourth-snowiest city, Buffalo, New York, is more than a foot behind, as are New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Boston, Massachusetts is 2 feet behind.

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The snow that cities across the Northeast have seen so far compared to what they normally see by mid-February.

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Buffalo is in the red even after the city received national attention for the tons of snow that postponed the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers NFL Wild Card Game in January.

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Nashville, Tennessee, and Oxford, Mississippi, places that aren't typically top-of-mind when thinking about snow, have seen more snow than New York City so far this season. Nashville is outscoring The Big Apple by 4 inches to 1.

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Burlington, Vermont, is in the record books for seeing just traces of snow for the first half of February.

Nearby ski resorts have had to resort to machine-made snow. Operators are struggling with warm temperatures and only about half the snow they normally have.

Northeast ski resorts are struggling with only about half of the snow they normally see.

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There is one winner this year. Allentown, Pennsylvania, so far has seen more than 25 inches of snow, more than 2 inches above average.

"Allentown, it was wild," Morgan said. "They got clocked not once, but twice this month – 14 inches just south of the city last Saturday.

However, there were more have-not cities with this storm.

"That intense band just tracked its way eastward, and it just walloped Allentown and much of the surrounding communities," echoed FOX Weather Meteorologist Kendall Smith. "So a lot of communities in this intense band, which was, mind you, only 22 miles wide, picked up the lion's share, but outside of that band, it was just kind of measly." 

South & Midwest

The next winner is Nashville and much of Tennessee. The city saw 7.6 inches of snow from one January storm, which almost doubles the average they usually see at this time of the year of 3.7 inches.

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Snow totals so far this season.

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Nashville comes in with about half of what Minneapolis, Minnesota, has seen so far this year. The Twin Cities are almost 2 feet below average for snowfall. They only saw 2 inches for the entire month of January when they normally average almost a foot.

Minneapolis, with only 14.2 inches, is on target to experience the least snowy winter in the past five years by a factor of four. If the rest of the winter doesn't bring at least 3.2 inches snow, this will be the least snowy winter in the city's history.

Minneapolis' least snowy winters.

Minneapolis is not alone. Cleveland, Ohio, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are in a snow deficit of about 2 feet.

Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio haven't seen 6 inches of snow in a day since 2015. That is the second-longest streak on record.

"The snow, it mostly skipped America's heartland," Morgan said.

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Plains

One winner in the Plains is Wichita, Kansas. 

"Ding ding ding, 14.3 inches so far in Wichita," said Smith, a Kansas native. "What's interesting though is that we saw the majority of that snow fall during the month of November, which is surprising."

The city picked up 7.8 inches two days after Thanksgiving, then saw another round of snow for Christmas.

Wichita is one of the few areas across the Plains and Midwest with above average snowfall.

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West

The mountains need more snow too. Salt Lake City, Utah, is almost 2 feet in the red. The Sierra Nevada only has about three-quarters of its average snowpack for the year.

One ski resort in Montana had to close for the season in the middle of winter. The owner said that he doesn't have snow-making equipment because he has never needed it before. He said this is the driest winter in 55 years.

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One mountainous city is a winner though – Flagstaff, Arizona. The city has seen 72.9 inches of snow which is almost a foot more than average.

"Three feet of snow, Flagstaff, Smith said. "It was it was their biggest snowstorm in four years. The snow rates were two inches an hour, wild and the storm just wasn't ending. It was the residual impacts of this atmospheric river, and we had elevation to play with. And the high country of Arizona really cashed in."

Carolinas

The Carolinas are the biggest losers, so far. Ashville, North Carolina, is going on 708 days since it has seen measurable snow. That is almost 2 years for the mountain town. The longest snowless streak ended in 2013 after 736 days.

While states such as Florida and Hawaii come to mind when thinking about snowless places, South Carolina is the only state so far this winter to report no snow.

In terms of snowfall deficit, Ironwood, Michigan, and Perrysburg, New York, both come in with more than 8 feet in the red.

Cities that have the most below-average snowfall.

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Not much time to catch up

With less than a month until the official start of spring and less than two weeks until the start of meteorological spring, there is not much chance of catching up at this point. Maybe we can blame that on El Niño.

"We could blame El Niño," Morgan said. "In a lot of ways this Pacific jet is a warmer one. While we can have these outbreaks of cold air, the Pacific jet has ruled."

"This winter, it seems like it's all about the unseasonable warmth," he added.