By Brenna Angel
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- – As a four-season state, Kentucky is used to winter weather, but residents have been shoveling more snow this season than usual. State climatologist Dr. Stuart Foster says spring is coming, and Kentucky will again experience weather that's more typical of the mid-south region.
"We've had a couple of winters, this winter and last winter, where we had colder weather and a little bit more snow, but it's hard to take two years and make a trend out of it. I think that's just some of the fun of being in Kentucky that we have quite variable weather from year to year."
Forecasters blame much of this year's harsh winter weather on a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which caused temperatures to plummet. And despite the extra snow, Foster says some parts of the Commonwealth are still in a drought.
"If we look at the snowfall, we're above normal, but if we melt all of that and turn it into water equivalent and think about precipitation overall, we're below average for the winter months."
Western Kentucky and parts of the Bluegrass region were hit hard by a summer dry spell. The latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows Kentucky's conditions ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought.
The good news: Foster says a phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean known as La Ni a will hopefully mean milder temperatures and more rain in Kentucky in coming weeks.