Will We Be Walking in a Millersville Winter Wonderland?

Sung to the tune of Winter Wonderland:

Sleigh bells rang, were you listening? On George St., when snow was glistening!

Was Homecoming weekend a sample of the upcoming winter season? Eric Horst, director of Millersville University’s Weather Information Center (MUWIC), gives his predictions for the approaching season.

The highly anticipated homecoming parade, which celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Millersville Borough, still went on as scheduled—snow and all. The day’s snowfall accumulated to more than four inches, and the Millersville area hit low temperatures of 30 degrees, setting a record snowfall for the month of October.

“Although it snowed on Saturday, I do not expect an unusually cold or snowy winter,” says Horst. “Global climate signals, like the ongoing La Nina in the Pacific and current jet stream patterns, suggest a rather typical winter with near-average snowfall in the Millersville area.”

Horst predicts Millersville a highly variable winter, with multiple changeover storms (snow to ice to rain) and an average snowfall ranging from 20 to 30 inches and “La Nina tends to shift the storm track to our north, so that makes ‘changeover storms’ more likely than all-snow storms,” said Horst.

He also suspects there will be some warm spells causing temperatures to hit 50 degrees in the middle of winter. “I think there will be some days this winter where we will see students walking around in shorts,” exclaimed Horst.

With no expectations of weather-related closings for the University, Horst says delays may be possible. “These changeover storms can make travel especially slippery, compared with just plain rain or all snow on the road.”

To get the latest weather updates, visit the MUWIC website. For the latest information on weather delays and closings, sign up to receive MUAlerts.