Winter 2013 - 2014 Season Recap

The dominant theme of the winter of 2013-14 was one of persistent cold and snowy conditions for a good part of the nation from the Upper Midwest and Midwest through the Great Lakes Region. There were 25 named winter storms that spanned a time frame from early October through mid-April.

(MORE: 2013 - 2014 Winter Storms A through Y)

Record snowfall and cold temperatures dominated the headlines for a host of cities, especially for the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region. Some of the locations that set all time seasonal snowfall records included Billings MT, Detroit MI and Toledo OH. International Falls, the "icebox" of the nation, set its all-time record cold winter season for the time frame from December through February and Chicago set its 3rd coldest winter on record. Near record ice cover also persisted on the Great Lakes well into the Spring.

The cold and snow not only persisted across the the northern parts of the nation but impacted the South at times including a devastating ice and snow event that caused massive traffic problems and gridlock for metro Atlanta and Birmingham.

While all of this high impact weather pummeled the eastern U.S., parts of the West saw nearly opposite conditions. Across the Sierra of California through the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico it remained very warm and very dry through much of the winter. However, farther north from the Washington Cascades through Bitterroots and Tetons down through the Central Rockies several storms built up the snow pack. In fact near record snow pack accumulated across parts of the Montana Rockies.

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NEXT > See our list of winter storm names for 2013-2014

Winter Storms 2013-2014

In an effort to increase awareness and enhance communication of disruptive, impactful winter storms, The Weather Channel named winter storms starting in the 2012-2013 season. We are using a new list of names, shown above, for the 2013-2014 season.

(MORE: Origin of the Names | Science Behind Naming Winter Storms)

In all, there were 27 named winter storms in 2012-2013 spanning over five months beginning with the post-Sandy Winter Storm Athena in early November and ending with Winter Storm Achilles in early May.

(MORE: Winter's Named Storms from A to Z)

Not every winter weather system will receive a name. The Weather Channel has specific criteria in place to determine when we name a particular winter storm. Our two main criteria for naming a winter storm are:

It is forecast to produce conditions that meet the National Weather Service winter-weather warning threshold(s) over a main population center or multiple states, beginning generally within 48 hours.It is forecast to produce winter weather conditions that would be historic, especially unusual, or memorable, beginning generally within 48 hours.

For more coverage of winter weather, check out ourWinter Storm Central page.