Top 10 global weather events of 2010

7. (tie) Historic snow retreat

Devin Wagner / Argus Leader / AP / File
Chris Kullander walks on a water-lapped bike trail in Sioux Falls, S.D., March 15. A lone floating chunk of snow-covered ice points to the culprit: snowmelt and heavy rain drove nearby rivers above their banks.

December 2009 had the second-largest snow cover of the satellite record (since the mid-1960s), followed by a ferocious spring snowmelt season. The rapidly melting snow contributed to spring floods across the Northern US and Canada.

Following the early and pronounced snow melt, the North American, Eurasian, and Hemispheric snow cover was the smallest on record for May and June 2010.

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