With Rich Exner, Plain Dealer data analysis editor

Remember snow?

For many of us in Northeast Ohio, it's probably only a lingering, aching memory -- especially if you've been living in snowless Cleveland for the last eight months.

That's right, through Monday, the city has gone 250 straight days without any measurable snow at the National Weather Service station at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

That's the longest stretch between winter seasons in this town for more than half a century. The only longer time on record, based on weather reports dating back to 1893, was in 1946 -- a year with an amazing 267 days between official snowfalls.

This year, there hasn't been snow on the ground in Cleveland from March 25 (1.4 inches recorded) through Monday (and probably through today). That's according to cleveland.com/datacentral and figures from the National Climatic Data Center.

"That is a pretty long time without snow on the ground," said meteorologist Martin Thompson at the airport weather station. "We've almost always had a snow event by Thanksgiving."

(OK, hold on to your snowblowers, robust Geauga County folk. We know that many of you and some other east siders have already had several inches of snow, but as we've said before: It's only unofficial unless it falls at the airport west of Cleveland.)

The weather service only officially counts snow if it can be measured on the ground. Otherwise, it's considered a "trace," or no snow at all if it's just flurries in the air -- which we've had a few times downtown already this year.

The next longest period sans snow, since records were kept out at the airport eight miles west of downtown, was 247 days was set in 1994. We went from April 7 to Dec. 10 between snows that year.

On average, we go 214 days between the last snow of the spring and the first of the winter.

Record book

.

The year when winter left late and showed up early?

That was 1974 -- when there was one-tenth of an inch recorded on May 7 (though 2 inches fell the day before ) and another one-tenth of inch again on Oct. 2 (the first of three snow days in October of 1974).

But this year has been one of the warmest on record (including a record hot April) and low on snow.

What might all of this mean for the coming winter?

Probably not all that much, Thompson said.

"We tend to look at each season individually," he said. "The fact that there was a record-long stretch without snow in-between won't affect the rest of this winter. That will be determined more by La Nina and the jet stream."

In any case, the snowless run is about to end, Thompson said.

The weather service says after heavy rain and high winds today, there's an 80 percent chance of snow on Wednesday. That would end our near-record streak on Dec. 1, after 251 days.

"We'll see how it sets up, but it's looking like we could get an inch or so in Cleveland on Wednesday," Thompson said. "Of course, there's always a chance that we don't, too."

i>>?