Warm winter wanes
MLGW customers benefit from tame winter temps
Although they were getting socked with incessant rain last week, Memphis-area utility customers can be thankful for warm weather this winter that saved them an average of more than $100 on heating bills.
The three-month period of December through February — called “meteorological winter” by the National Weather Service — was the seventh-warmest on record in the city. The average temperature of 47.8 during the period was 4.4 degrees above normal and the highest since the winter of 1949-50, according to the weather service.
The all-time high average winter temperature in the city was a balmy 54.1 during 1889-90.
The mild temperatures benefitted customers of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, as consumption of natural gas and electricity fell 21 percent and 10 percent, respectively, from last winter. Average residential utility bills for the three months totaled $531.23, down more than $104, or 16.4 percent, from $635. 59 for the period of December 2014 through February 2015, according to figures supplied by MLGW.
Bills were kept low by the absence of single-digit temperatures this winter. The coldest it got was 18 degrees on Jan. 11.
Officially, the city received a mere 0. 3 inches of snow during the period, less than one-tenth of the normal 3.4 inches.
Overa l l pre c ipit at ion was nearly 1. 5 inches below normal for the three winter months, but that changed last week.
A deep trough in the atmosphere over the Southern plains ushered in last week’s rain that brought flash flooding in Shelby County.
More than 9.66 inches of rain fell last week. According to the NWS, bot h Wednesday a nd Thursday set ra i nfa l l records for the area. On Wednesday, 4. 53 inches fell at Memphis Interna- tional Airport, breaking the old record for the date of 3.84 inches in 1992. So much rain fell Wednesday, in fact, that it ranks as the 17th-wettest day on record in Memphis. On Thursday, the total was at least 3.43 inches, breaking the record of 2 inches set on that date in 1902.
According to the NWS, 10.6 inches of rain had fallen at the Agricenter from Wednesday through Saturday; at the airport, that total was 9.66 inches.
“It’s a lot of rain,” NWS meteorologist Andy Chiuppi said, in something of an understatement.
The unusual weather hasn’t been limited to the Memphis area.
The nation as a whole experienced its warmest winter since records were first kept in 1895. The average temperature for the Lower 48 states was 36.8 degrees, 4.6 degrees above normal, breaking the record set in 1999-2000.