This winter ranks as the seventh mildest in the last 119 years

Decorah weather observer Richard Bernatz has been crunching some numbers--and they confirm what all of us have been talking about: this has been an extremely mild winter.

Bernatz has compiled figures of average high temperatures, average low temperatures, average temperatures, number of days with high temperatures less than 10 degrees, number of days with high temperatures less than 32 degrees, number of days with low temperatures below zero, total inches of snowfall, number of days with significant snowfall of at least one inch, and the number of days between the first snowfall and the last snowfall.  All the figures were for November 1st through January 31st.  He will recalculate the figures after March 31st.

After calculating these nine statistics from the 119 years in which November through January weather statistics have been kept in Decorah, Bernatz has determined that the all-time mildest November through January winter period was...2001-2002.  Five other November through January periods were all very mild, placing November 1st of 2011 through January 31st of 2012 as the seventh mildest out of the 119 winters.

And for anyone who is sad this winter hasn't set a record for mild weather, they should be glad the weather hasn't copied the winter of 1976-1977, when 39 days had below zero readings.