This hasn't been a bad winter in Decorah so far

All in all, the winter of 2017--2018 has been a fairly mild one.  That's the conclusion of Decorah meteorologist Richard Bernatz, who has just finished crunching the weather numbers from November 1st through January 31st.

Bernatz says the November 2017 through January 2018 period ranks 101st out of the 125 years on record. That is, 100 winters were more severe than this winter for the period November through January.

He comes to this conclusion by studying 15 measures of winter severity.  14 out of 15 measures of 2017-2018 have been less severe than average this season.  For instance, a total of 9.7 inches of snowfall has been recorded this season, 11.7 inches less than average.  These statistics give some measure of the length, frequency, and severity of winter events.

Of course, "winter" is not over yet--Bernatz will keep tracking severity measurements all the way through March 31st.