DECEMBER STARTS WITH THE MOST SNOW COVER FOR THE FIRST PART OF DECEMBER IN THE US IN OVER A DECADE!

Snow cover across the Lower 48 Monday morning was the most expansive for Dec. 2 since at least 2003.The past week saw an increase in snowpack from the West to the Northern Plains, upper Midwest and Northeast. There's snow on the ground across more of the Lower 48 to start December than there has been in at least 16 years. An estimated 46.2% of the contguous U.S. had snow on ground as of Monday morning, according to NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center. That's well above the 25.9% average Dec. 2 snow cover for the last 16 years. Back-to-back winter storms during Thanksgiving week helped build up snowpack across the West, Northern Plains, upper Midwest and Northeast.

Another winter storm spread snow from the Rockies to the upper Midwest during the first half of last week. Snow covered just 12.9% of the lower 48 before those storms arrived last week.

No additional widespread snowstorms are expected the rest of this week. Expansive early December snow cover doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the month will be cold and snowy. Snow covered 41.5% of the Lower 48 states on Dec. 2 of last year, which is the second-most for that date since 2003. That was followed by the ninth-warmest December on record for the contiguous U.S.