Thanks to those of you whom participated in our Spring Snow Contest.  The goal of the competition was to predict the amount of snow that would accumulate in Boulder for February, March and April 2018 in relation to climatological normal. In this post, we review the entries and announce the winners!

Monthly Snowfall Entries:

The first aspect of the contest was to choose categories for which the observed monthly snowfall totals for February, March, and April would fall into, according to the following guidelines.

TOTAL SNOWFALL PER MONTH

  • [CATEGORY – Much Above Normal] : More than 8″ above normal
  • [CATEGORY – Above Normal] : 4″ to 8″ above normal
  • [CATEGORY – Near-Normal] : +/- 4″ from normal
  • [CATEGORY – Below Normal] : 4 to 8″ below normal
  • [CATEGORY – Much Below Normal] : More than 8″ below normal

The baseline for the forecasts was the average snowfall amounts for each month in Boulder for the most recent 30 years (1988-2017). Categories chosen were in relation to the “normal” values below:

  • February Normal Value: 14.1″
  • March Normal Value: 17.1″
  • April Normal Value: 13.8″

Categorical snowfall guesses were clearly skewed towards below normal snowfall all three months, particularly in February. Though “Near-Normal” was the most common entry for both March and April.

Biggest Single-Storm Snow Entries:

The second element to the contest was predicting Boulder’s biggest SINGLE-STORM snowfall total during the three month period. We warned that “big” snows are very hard to come by during La Niña winters. Based on the range of guesses, many of you seem to have taken our advice! 80% of entries predicted our biggest snowstorm to be 12″ or less.

How did scoring work?

Monthly snowfall total category forecasts: Five (5) points was awarded for correctly forecasting the exact category for a month. Two (2) points was awarded for forecasts in an adjacent category. All other monthly forecasts received zero points.

Biggest single-storm snow total forecast: Five (5) points was awarded for predicting our biggest snow dumping to within 1.0″. Two (2) points was awarded for forecasts within 3.0″ (but more than 1″).

Thus, the maximum possible score was 20 points for this contest.

The results:

The table below summarizes Boulder’s snowfall during the months of February, March, and April. The contest categories which verified are shown in the column on the right.

Normal Snowfall 2018 Observed Snowfall Departure Category Verification
February 14.1″ 18.5″ +4.4″ Above Normal
March 17.1″ 6.8″ -10.3″ Much Below Normal
April 13.8″ 6.0″ -7.8″ Below Normal

The biggest single-storm snow total during the period occurred on February 19th. This storm was localized and resulted from a stationary jet-forced snow band. You can read our full recap of the event HERE. Boulder’s total was 8.8″, which sadly turned out to be the largest snowstorm of the entire winter.

And the winners are…

There were just shy of 100 contest participants. 1st Place goes to David from Milliken, Colorado whom scored 15 points overall. This included a correct category guess for both March (5 points) and April (5 points), as well as predicting 8.1″ as our biggest snowstorm (5 points). The Runner-Up was Arnando from Boulder with 14 points. 33 other individuals scored enough points to earn an honorable mention and a small prize.

  • Highest Point Scorer: $25 Amazon Gift Card, 6-month subscription to Premium and a BoulderCAST T-Shirt
    • David S – 15 points
  • Runner-Up: 6-month subscription to Premium
    • Arnando – 14 points
  • Anyone Who Scored 8-13 Points: 1-month subscription to Premium
    • Caitlin S – 12 points
    • Elias F – 12 points
    • Joan – 12 points
    • Michael K – 12 points
    • Julian – 11 points
    • Lee B – 11 points
    • Patty M – 11 points
    • Candice C – 10 points
    • Eddie J – 10 points
    • Mandy A – 10 points
    • Ralph – 10 points
    • Roger – 10 points
    • Ryan – 10 points
    • Theresa – 10 points
    • Adrienne F – 9 points
    • Alice M – 9 points
    • Ann H – 9 points
    • Brooke L – 9 points
    • Catherine L – 9 points
    • Claire P – 9 points
    • Debbie H – 9 points
    • Donnie C – 9 points
    • Elsie B – 9 points
    • Greg G – 9 points
    • Jose C – 9 points
    • Jose W – 9 points
    • Karen H – 9 points
    • Marie J – 9 points
    • Rose M – 9 points
    • Shawn M – 9 points
    • Betty C – 8 points
    • Brian B – 8 points
    • Nancy H – 8 points
  • Anyone Who Scored 7 or Less Points: Nothing. Nothing at all…
    • 54 people, including 8 people who somehow managed to score 0 points

Congratulations to all the winners. Click HERE view the full spreadsheet with all entries and a scoring summary.

Winners will receive an email with further instructions in the next few days. If you didn’t win, don’t worry. We’ll definitely host more weather-related contests periodically throughout the year. In fact, we already have one planned in the next few weeks. Look for the contest announcement and your next chance to predict our weather very soon!

BoulderCAST Team

This post had major contributions from at least two members of our team. The more meteorologists the better, right?

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