Average winter snowfall in our area is around 20 inches, and that's just about what we've had this winter. But averages don't really tell the story of winter snow, because there's lots of variability from year-to-year.

This graph shows winter snowfall in Wilmington all the way back to the late 1800s. The scale on the left runs from zero to sixty inches, a huge range. The snowiest winter was four years ago, with about 55 inches - that was the winter of the Blizzard of '96. The least snow in any winter is around an inch - that's happened a few times, most recently just two winters ago.

Here's the same graph, but with a thicker line running through it. It's tough to pin down any definite long-term trend in snowfall. But the numbers do show that over the last two decades, the snowfall during most winters has been near or below the long-term average of 20 inches.