Snowstorm in Spring

WOW what a snowstorm we had in the stock market this week, with indexes dropping about 5% in a short time. During the week when spring was in the air, a severe snowstorm blew in right after former Senator Edward Kennedy Senate seat was won by a Republican. Perhaps he did turn over in his grave. This snowstorm caught the stock market forecaster, Cramer, by surprise as he predicted sunny skies if Mr. Brown won. It appears that predicting the stock market is even more difficult than the weather.

This snowstorm was so large that people wondered if spring had really arrived. It was so bad people might even question whether winter had come back. A snowstorm during spring typically does not last.

Is it spring? Yes it is if you look at the recent reports of corporate earnings as most companies are beating expectations. Also, the index of leading economic indicators rose 1.1% during December its ninth straight month of gains since March 2009. The data suggests that spring is alive and well, in fact it should be a pretty normal one.

So what happened? The traders came in droves as a wave of fear swept in like an Alberta Clipper. It seemed like a speech from President Obama resulted in a snowstorm. It is true that weather and people are not always rational.

The good news is that commodity prices dropped so that the price of gas will be going down in the short term and that long term interest rates also fell. This helps everyone at the gas pump and people who are buying mortgages.

The good news is that spring snowstorms do not last long so relax and wait for warmer weather.

SNOW FACTS

Based on National Climatic Data Center records, New York state is home to the snowiest cities in the United States: Syracuse averages 115 inches of snow per year, and Rochester averages 93 inches per year. However, several less populated areas around the country receive much more snow. For instance, Mount Washington, New Hampshire, has an average annual snowfall of 260 inches, and Valdez, Alaska, averages 326 inches annually.

Buffalo, New York, is a close runner-up in terms of U.S. large cities with the most snow. A 39-inch snowfall in 24 hours in early December 1995 cost the city nearly $5 million for snow removal.

Almost 187 inches of snow fell in seven days on Thompson Pass, Alaska, in February, 1953, according to the National Snowfall and Snow Depth Extremes Table provided by the National Climatic Data Center.

Each year an average of 105 snow-producing storms affect the continental United States. A typical storm will have a snow-producing lifetime of two to five days and will bring snow to portions of several states.

The greatest snowfall officially reported at the Phoenix, Arizona, National Weather Service Office was one inch. That occurred twice. The first time was January 20, 1933. It happened again four years later on the same date.

The commonly used ten-to-one ratio of snowfall to water content is a myth for much of the United States. This ratio varies from as low as 100-to-one to as high as about three-to-one depending on the meteorological conditions associated with the snowfall.