My snow shovel has taken this winter off

When December in Milwaukee started us off with a foot and a half of snow, it looked like we were heading for the kind of winter our grandparents bragged about. Then ... nothing. Here we are a week into March, and I haven’t touched a snow shovel since Dec. 18. My snowblower has its feet up.

I have lived in Wisconsin all my life, and I never remember going the entire months of January and February — statistically our winter superstars — without once having to clear the sidewalk or driveway. At our northern latitude that seems impossible or at least freaky.

Just so we’re clear, I’m not complaining. If winter wants to wimp out, that’s fine with me. This one was the 10th warmest on record. I’ll take rain in the wintertime, as long as the word freezing isn’t in front of it.

“The warmth that we had led to below normal snowfall. The month of February was the fifth-least snowiest February on record,” said Brian Hahn, hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Sullivan.

We were dusted with 1.1 inches of snow for the entire month, which was the warmest February ever. The biggest snow event last month came on the 25th when 0.7 barely covered the city.

In January, we got 4.1 inches, spread out in small enough amounts that you could wait for it to melt.

So the 5.2 inches for January and February combined is the secondlowest snow total for those months in a single year, Hahn’s research shows. Chicago got virtually none. The unsnowiest January and February in Milwaukee was 4 inches in 1937, the year our grandparents conveniently forget to mention when they tell us how tough they had it.

So far in March, Milwaukee has 2.3 inches of snow, which didn’t even stick to the streets and sidewalks. Me saying it’s been an easy winter likely will anger March and result in a blizzard or three. In March 1931, Milwaukee saw 36 inches of snow.

You might think this winter as a whole — which is December, January and February for record-keeping purposes — ranks among the least snowy. Actually it’s not, because December had to go and ruin it. Our 24-inch total comes in at an unimpressive 46th place. The winter with the least snow in Milwaukee was 1936-’37 at a mere 7.6 inches.

I would say our gentle winter and the one last year could be signs of global warming, but our president and governor assure us there is no such thing. But I have heard people express a twinge of guilt when they’re enjoying, say, a hastily opened sun-splashed beer garden in February.

This caution from Hahn should make them feel better. “It’s not over yet. We still get snowstorms in March and April.”