The Baltimore region has recently faced a volley of winter weather, exhausting some school systems of their snow days and leaving slippery roads behind.

With totals from Tuesday’s snowstorm included, recent months have given the Baltimore area more snow than the past two winters combined. But this season’s totals are still on par with the past decade’s snowfall averages.

Even so, there is something out of the ordinary about this winter: It’s been extra cold.

Last month was the coldest January in the Baltimore area since 2014, according to the National Weather Service. The average daytime high at BWI Marshall Airport in January was in the 30s for the first time in over a decade. Eight days had highs below freezing, and overnight temperatures dropped as low as 6 degrees.

January was colder than average across the contiguous United States, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. But that’s after two very warm winters — in 2023, Baltimore broke a February heat record.

This year’s cold streak has persisted. The average temperature in the Baltimore area this month through Tuesday was 37, the lowest it’s been this far into February since 2021.

Meteorologists said the hits of cold are because of displacement in the jet stream, the west-to-east band of air that moves weather currents across the globe.

The jet stream, located high in the earth’s atmosphere, serves as a dividing line between cold northern air and warm tropical weather systems, said John Feerick, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. For much of the winter, it’s been displaced farther to the south, causing unusually cold weather in areas that don’t usually see it, he said.

Weather service meteorologist Andrew Snyder said Tuesday’s storm brought 3.8 inches at BWI and pushed this season’s snowfall total above the final amounts of the last two winters.

The average snowfall over the past 10 winters has been slightly above 13 inches, and around 12.7 inches of snow has fallen in the Baltimore area this winter. The Baltimore area got a total of 11.3 inches of snow during last year’s colder months, and only a fifth of an inch fell amid the “really mild winter” before that, Snyder said.

The weather service has logged at least trace amounts of new snow at BWI on 16 days since late November, when the first flurries of the season came down, though Tuesday night was only the fourth time there was measurable snowfall.

More snow is on the way Saturday, but Snyder said it’s difficult to say whether any will accumulate in the Baltimore region — it’s likely going to turn to rain as temperatures reach a high of 41.

There are some brief warmups expected in the coming days, with temperatures forecast to reach a high near 52 on Thursday and near 59 on Sunday. But there will also be plenty of cold, Feerick said.

“It’s kind of looking like there’s gonna keep being these cold shots,” he said. He noted that because of the below-freezing temperatures in the forecast and the active weather pattern, there will still be more opportunities for snow through the end of February.

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