Snow lovers and ski area owners throughout the region are experiencing an unusually subdued winter, writes Ian Livingston for The Washington Post. The cause? A prolonged snow drought.

While the mountains in the west are covered, Philadelphia, like much of the Northeast, has been absent an appreciable covering of white for what now is becoming an unprecedented length of time.

Below-average snowfall has been recorded along the entire I-95 corridor.

As things currently stand in Philadelphia, no measurable snow has fallen so far.

In fact, Philadelphia, along with several other cities along the East Coast, is closing in on having the most delayed start to a snow season on record, owing to the lack of measurable snow. This winter is the twelfth longest without any.

The latest first measurable snow recorded in the Philadelphia region was Feb. 3, although the winter of 1972–1973 had no snow whatsoever.

The winter’s first accumulating snowfall in the City of Brotherly Love has now become more than a month later than average.

The average first accumulating snowfall has also been coming later in the year in most of the coastal northeast, primarily due to the effects of climate change and urbanization.

Read more about the 2023 snow drought in The Washington Post.

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The implications of a snow drought can be serious, as this report from a Calif. NBC affiliate explains.