kat5hurricane

I was just sitting outside enjoying the breeze and watching the clouds slowly build from the west and out of nowhere there was a CTG lightning strike nearby and an enormous BOOM that scared the living shit out of me. I've been out in storms before plenty of times but this legit spooked me.

I've seen some beautiful cloud formations the last few days in Whitestone but no hits. Right now, towers building to the north, this morning was south. Yesterday was northwest. Everywhere but here thus far.

That was an intense 5 minute storm here in Whitestone. Torrential rain, vivid lightning and winds that must have gusted over 50 then 5 minutes later the sun was out in full force. A nice day here in Florida.

The wind is the real story so far after a few torrential downpours earlier. Building shaking wind gusts here in Queens. The rain is run of the mill stuff.

I was just going to say that. The peak winds perhaps aren't quite as high but much more consistent than the much more hyped after Easter storm.

Saw flurries on my way back from food shopping. I almost forgot what snow looked like and was wondering what those little white dots coming from the sky were.

What? There's been winds close to 70 up in Westchester and here in Northern Queens, we were consistently gusting up to 50+ in late morning and are back to very strong gusts the last 30 minutes or so. It's not just confined to the southeast part of the region.

Just came back from the Drug Store (what a surreal world we live in now) and got caught up in a snow/sleet burst. That was unexpected but pretty cool at the same time.

Oh I agree, on wanting to move on from this "winter" and Anthony's droning on about his longing for his long lost love Ms. Snow

Sorry but this is a little harsh. Everybody has their preferences so if Anthony wants to see snow falling from the sky even if it's white rain and causes some inconvenience for some people, why should he get shit for it? Personally, I'm hoping for an early spring. The earlier the better. The few days before this one were glorious, makes you feel alive when the warmth and sun hits you after a few months of winter even a warm winter like this one.

Looking forward to the March torch.

I think it was @bluewave who posted that the city hasn't dipped below 20 since December 19th. That's a remarkable stat to go 2 months in the middle of winter with zero below 20 readings. Has that ever happened in a 2 month winter span? Even '97-'98 and '11-'12 had a few cold spells I believe.

That was a wild couple of months. I actually feel like us in the immediate metro area underperformed in March relative to the potential of those storms. That was an amazing parade of KU's one after another.

March 2018 was the last time I can remember a pattern flipping on a dime and that was due to a historic SSW event as far as I recall.

Not really. We've been in this "stuck" pattern regime for years. Rarely do we see complete pattern flips anymore.

Are you kidding? We've been buried with snow, relatively speaking, the last 20 years or so. We're just exiting arguably the snowiest decade in NYC history. Gain some perspective on what a normal NYC climate is my man. This winter blows no doubt but quite frankly, I don't mind a winter or two with minimal snow and more importantly, less salt than normal on every street and sidewalk. It also makes you appreciate any snow we do get. I feel like we've taken these little 2-4 inch type events for granted because we've been so spoiled by KU's. It kind of brings me back to my childhood of the late 80s to early 90s in that respect.

I'm talking about a regression to the mean. We've had an incredible amount of 30+ inch winters in the last 20 years. We had 5 straight 30+ inch winters before last year. Under 20 inches once in the last 11 years, under 25 inches twice and these are the low end Central Park measurements, all of this in above normal temperature winters outside of a few exceptions. This isn't normal. It was inevitable that we'd string together consecutive stinkers and not luck out with perfect storm tracks several times a winter. BTW, last year ended up fairly close to normal with a late season charge. This year seems to be following a similar script continuing the 2010s theme of stuck weather patterns. We might get a few more winters like this coming up in the next few years if the pattern holds, could be entering an overdue snow drought period.

Welcome to a normal NYC winter climate, it took about 20 years to get there. The fact of the matter is that we've been extremely spoiled this century. A regression to the mean with a string of subpar winters was inevitable. This one can still be salvaged with one big storm (like '05-'06 for instance) but not looking good as of now. I'd be willing to sacrifice the rest of winter if it meant no cold and wet spring. That's the absolute worst.

Got a little over 2" in Whitestone and still snowing lightly. Looks beautiful outside. You learn to appreciate even the minor events in winters like this.

About 1" in Whitestone and moderate snow. Best event of the season already as sad as that sounds.

And it's going to be amped too. Bad track and marginal air mass. Pretty much a non event for a good chunk of us which is fine because in a way, I prefer mostly rain to washed away snow.

I never understood why anybody at the coast gets hyped for events like this. SWFE events without a true arctic airmass in place are pretty much non events for us coasties. 2-4 at best washed away by rain does nothing for me personally. It's been a winter of non events thus far.

Even if this winter turns out to be a stinker, people need to keep their disappointment in perspective. Lots of spoiled folks who have become accustomed to 30+ inch winters as the norm (in the immediate metro of course). We've been incredibly lucky the last 20 years or so. The 2000s have been the Golden Era of snow since records have been kept so we are long overdue for a string of bad winters. At some point, there will be regression to the mean for us coasties and last year might have started that trend.

Can confirm in Midtown although I wouldn't say quite as nuts as last year here. It's already longer lasting than last year though, about 10 minutes so far.

It depends on where you're located. In northeast Queens, I've gotten slightly more than bupkis. Around 2 inches total with some white rain mixed in. Heavy salt though so good for the salt lovers