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"With all this warmth and dryness from November and early December, we actually reached a record low continental U.S. snow cover by December 3rd.  By that date we had just 6% of the continental United States covered by snow," said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey recently. He noted when comparing 2003 to 2020 the average amount of the country covered by snow is 26.8%.

"Records of this type only go back about two decades.  So we'll call it a 21st century record.  But it is still noteworthy that we had only 6% of the country covered by snow on December 3rd.  It's just a remarkably low value for this time of year."

Since then there has been some recovery with northern storminess.

"But that said, we still see a significant portion of the country uncovered at this point in the season, and still susceptible to drying due to mild weather and windy conditions.; and so a lot of the country still very much in need of moisture whether in the form of rain or snow."

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