And now - presenting Part 2 of our typical winter season full of snow maps, snow maps, more snow maps...and...snow maps. Being in the "heart" of winter...this is significantly longer than part 1.
Disclaimer: No negative, malicious, or otherwise hurtful intent is intended in this diddy. I try to balance realism and fun without coming across as vindictive. If I offend you, I apologize in advance -
January 1st: @Bubbler86 reports an overnight low of 27 at 5:38am. Why is anyone up at this hour on New Year's morning?
January 1st: @mahantango#1 reports an overnight low of 16. I swear, for a guy who claims to love hot weather...he's in the wrong location
January 1st: @Blizzard of 93 must have liked what he saw from the overnight and early morning model runs. He assaults us with snow maps from the GFS, ICON, IKEA, EURO, GGEM, UKMET, UPMC, NAM, NRA, and by this point...I've made my way to the medicine cabinet.
January 6th: The first tangible, significant threat is now under 120 hours. The day features 227 posts and 763 snow maps
January 7th: Our storm is now modeled at 12z to be a cutter by every model except for the Euro. @Blizzard of 93 pulls out his "winter handbook" to explain why the Euro has the right idea. I mutter "Blizz STFU"
January 7th: Our storm is now modeled at 18z to be a cutter by every model except for the GFS. @Blizzard of 93 pulls out his "winter handbook" to explain why the GFS has the right idea. I mutter "Blizz STFU"
January 8th: All models now show the low tracking over Chicago. @Blizzard of 93suggests that with nearly 4 days left, large changes in track can occur. I agree- I envision this heading over Sioux Falls.
January 8th: With such an intense cutter expected, @candersonmakes a post concerning the winds behind the storm. He suggest area-wide sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts to 80 mph.
January 9th: Our storm has shifted SE by a couple of hundred miles. With no CAD evident, it's still a rainstorm. @Blizzard of 93shows one ensemble member of one model run that runs under us. He states that there's a distribution of cutters vs coastals. I wonder where this dude got his education.
January 11th: Our storm brings about 1" of rain with temps in the 40s to near 50. Behind the storm, winds gust to 30 mph. I want to quote @candersonprediction but decide not to.
January 12th: @CarlislePaWxposts that he finished the previous year .000034" less rainfall than the year prior.
January 13th: @Mount Joy Snowmansays that the nation's low that morning was -36 in Peter Sinks. I wonder...how does Peter sink into anything at a -36 temp?
January 15th: With no real wintry threat looming, @mitchnick cancels winter
January 15th: About 3 minutes after Mitch's post, @Blizzard of 93 scolds Mitch with a patented "lol...we're really canceling winter in the middle of January! See you at 18z lol" I mutter "Blizz STFU"
January 17th: @MAG5035provides a lengthy dissertation of the coming pattern and suggests that by the end of the month, snow chances will improve significantly
January 17th: @mitchnick replies to MAG and agrees 100%. Especially now that he no longer lives on the tarmac at Thurgood Marshall.
January 18th: @Bubbler86 apologizes to Eagles fans for their tough loss
January 18th: @anotherman says "Dallas can go to hell"
January 20th: @Festusmentions the upcoming solar eclipse and the exact degree of totality in Manheim
January 24th: The GFS now shows a storm off the SE coast on the 28th. According to @Blizzard of 93 winter handbook, this will adjust NW and be a huge hit
January 24th: Same hour run, but the Euro shows the storm east of Bermuda. @Blizzard of 93winter handbook says that the Euro ingested bad data
January 25th: @MAG5035 says that there is nothing about the pattern that would support this storm from affecting us at all.
January 25th: About 3 minutes after MAG's post, @Blizzard of 93 states that we still have a solid chance of at least an advisory event. Hmmm - what to believe here.. @MAG5035 or @Blizzard of 93?
January 27th: The pattern completely squashed the "storm" threat. @Blizzard of 93is silent.
January 30th: @mahantango#1drops down to 5 degrees. For such a warminsta...no seriously, why does this guy live there? @mahantango#1 then posts 3-4 of the most beautiful pictures of his countryside and now it all makes sense.
February 5th: A weak NW flow system is progged to roll through on the 7th
February 5th: @GrandmasterB thinks this system will juice up. Speaking of juicing up, I fondly recall his father Al eating Tang Sandwiches on Married with Children.
February 6th: @MAG5035 posts to say that pretty much the entire LSV should expect a couple of fluffy inches
February 6th: About 3 minutes after MAG's post, @Blizzard of 93 posts 26 snow maps in the span of 4 minutes. None of them show anyone getting more than 3"
February 6th: @Blizzard of 93 says that the LSV could get upgraded to a warning. I check the time, and as I suspected...Blizz posted his comment at exactly 4:20
February 7th: @Coop_Mason posts a picture of the road in front of his crib with 1" already down. Other than @Bubbler86no one else is even reporting flurries yet
February 7th: The weak POS system basically skips over Lanco, with no one in the county measuring more than a few tenths of an inch
February 8th: @pasnownut parsed the overnight tellies and deems that tracking season is back in full force. I forget again what a tellie is
February 9th: @Storm Clouds cancels winter. I wonder if he'll change his name to "Fair Skies"
February 10th: @Superstormreports 7" of new snow. In New Hampshire.
February 11th: A quick perusal of the MA LR thread is enlightening - Stormchaser Chuck shared that the next few years might trend cooler because we're seeing more cumulus clouds over the past 2 years. Chuck was spot on in his assessment that we were NOT going into an epic pattern in February 2024. I vow to keep tabs on the CU field going forward.
February 13th: Excitement builds in our thread as a new threat has emerged, centered on the 19th.
February 13th: @Bubbler86 posts a few snow maps from the 6z runs
February 13th: @Blizzard of 93 posts about 3 dozen snow maps from 6z
February 13th: PSU Hoffman makes a 17,000 word post in the MA LR thread about how much he loves the upcoming pattern. @Blizzard of 93 quotes this in our thread and says that "PSU Hoffman is one of the best, most accurate posters on the entire forum, when he speaks, I listen"
February 13th: @mitchnickuses analogs and history and suggests that this is the one
February 13th: I get up to check what's poppin' in the thread. I count a total of 46 words and 49 snow maps since I had gone to bed the night before
February 15th: After a couple of days of excitement and more snow maps than the total population of China, our storm looks to miss south
February 16th: @Storm Clouds @canderson @Atomixwx all cancel winter. @Atomixwx does so in his non-traditional style or wording.
February 16th: @Blizzard of 93 responds and says "lol...you people are unbelievable! MDT is only 17" behind normal as of today. (1" actual snowfall vs 18" normal) You act like it's bad a bad winter, lol! Get a grip people, there is a lot of winter remaining, lol" I mutter "Blizz STFU"
February 18th: Our "storm" drops 1" of snow in Raleigh-Durham NC before heading out to sea. Raleigh-Durham now leads Lanco for seaonal snowfall, 1" - T.
February 20th: @Superstormreports 4" of new snow. In Connecticut.
February 22nd: @MAG5035looks to the final week of February and beginning of March and isn't enthused
February 23rd: Our thread has now gone OT to baseball, basketball, and some R related material
February 24th: @Voyager shares a picture of snow in Tucson. Now the freaking desert is ahead of Lanco for the season.
February 26th: @Bubbler86posts the GFS 384 map showing a bomb right over Philly. The eastern 3/4 of PA is a monsoon, with heavy snow in Pittsburgh
February 26th: @TimBsees the GFS and instructs his thread that Pittsburgh hasn't had a snow like that since the Pirates played at Forbes Field, toss it
February 26th: @Blizzard of 93 likes what he sees on the GFS and pulls out the "storm will manufacture it's own cold air" shit out of his winter handbook. 850s are +6 in Marysville during the storm.
February 29th: On a day that only happens every 4 years, it's just 1 day away from JI's February 30th blizzard call.
March 2nd: PSU Hoffman essentially admits that he was wrong, and cancels the remainder of winter
March 2nd: PSU Hoffman's post gets no quote this time from @Blizzard of 93
March 2nd: @Itstrainingtime mentions PSU Hoffman's quote to Blizz and asks why no response?
March 2nd: @Blizzard of 93 responds to me and says "LOL, he doesn't live in our area...different thread. And he's probably wrong. We're still tracking!" At this point, I'm convinced that Blizz is equipped with a non-negativity shield around him. He's infallible to bad news.
March 7th: Our thread has now lost a lot of seasonal posters as the day's high temp was 77. Talk of sports, Pillow, Broadway, and CC abound
March 8th: It's made publicly known to us that Met winter finished as the 2nd warmest ever in DuBois
March 8th: It's made publicly knows to us that Met winter finished as the 3rd warmest ever at ABE
March 8th: @Jns2183 - shares a litany of stats on temp anomalies at MDT. After I've read through it, I'm not sure what the original point was
March 13th: @MAG5035 posts that outside of a late season fluke or something in the mountains, it might be curtains for the rest of us
March 13th: About 3 minutes after MAG's post, @Blizzard of 93 shows a map of a storm along the east coast at 384 hours. It's an impressive looking storm, and he says "lol, I will never give up!"
March 13th: @Bubbler86 responds to @Blizzard of 93 and eloquently lets him know that it's a rainstorm
March 19th: Spring officially arrives. The thread only has about 10-20 posts a day.
March 22nd: @Blizzard of 93 posts a map valid April 7th that shows about 1" of snow over the Adirondacks. Somehow...someway...he's going to try and will it down this way...
My heartfelt thanks to each of you. I've been a part of this community for 14 years and coming online each day is akin to eating comfort food. Sometimes I know what is coming and from whom it's coming before it even comes. We've had our struggles and plenty of tension, especially recently, but without you and this thread, my daily life would be less that what it is.
Here's hoping that actual winters are better than the one that I portrayed above...
Mike
