Scarlet Pimpernel

Toilet paper and milk, FTW!! I'd like to see what kind of a spike in sales all the local supermarkets had during the week of those two storms!

The whole 12-day period from 30 January through 10 February was incredible in terms of winter weather, and something I've never experienced before. And this is coming from someone who grew up in northeast OH, where lots of snow and cold winters are common.

I've got many of the LWX forecasts and forecast discussions throughout the event, HPC snowfall probability charts, NAM and GFS forecasts at 500, 700, 850, and surface from Friday, 5 February (12Z cycle), and final snowfall reports after the storm...all saved. And, of course a ton of photos! I'll look through them and see if I can post a couple later on sometime. The only unfortunate thing (photograpy-wise!) is that a lot of the snow fell at night, and my camera isn't the greatest for nighttime photography, so most of the pictures are from just before sunset and from the following day. But I did get a few late in the evening, at least. The whole storm was amazing, as was the anticipation and getting ready for it. It was well forecast well in advance, with high certainty about what was going to happen. I remember leaving work early, just as the first light snow started to fall...headed out to Blockbuster (Lackluster!) video to pick up a couple of movies for the weekend, grabbed a small personal Pizza Hut pizza for lunch, and got some fire wood in case the power went out (fortunately it didn't!). Oh, and also picked up a 6-pack of BECK'S beer, on purpose, in honor of the impending storm (thinking of the mythical "BECS" type snowstorm!). Snow initially fell lightly for a couple or so hours but didn't really accumulate at the start. But it did start in earnest and began accumulating around 3PM on Friday the 5th. We had some snow left over from the Groundhog's Day event a couple of days prior (which got lost in the shuffle before the big event). I ended up with 23.5" where I'm at in Silver Spring, MD. Took many Jebwalks through the evening and the following day. Heard some thunder-snow during the evening/night, definitely saw flashes of lightning in the sky. And, heard many transformers blowing too. When I got up the next morning, it was a spectacular scene...and we still had a decent amount of the storm left to go! The only thing that was a little odd was that early Saturday (6th), Sterling seemed to back off some on the snow amounts I recall, and mentioned as much in their forecast discussion at the time...only to up them again by mid-morning. That, and somehow, despite the entire area getting a general 20-30", DCA came in with "only" 17.8, and I remember some discussion about that report on the Eastern WX board. I seem to recall seeing at least a couple of reports within the District itself that were well over 20". Regardless, a great storm all-around!

HA...perfect!

Pretty much! Same here. I loved going outside in the late evening on Friday as it began to snow and accumulate. Next day, I was out taking pictures as often as possible, and taking measurements. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering who the fool was walking around with a yardstick (all in the name of science, ya know!). Perhaps one of the coolest things about that storm is it was the first truly major event since Feb. 2003...a long time coming, and it was very exciting to finally break that drought. Even for this area, 7 years between "big storms" is kind of a long time. And by major, I'm talking widespread double-digit amounts (10-12") or more in the metro area (even as measured at DCA!). We certainly had some good moderate or better events in the intervening time, but also just missed on some or ended up with a lot less than originally thought (Feb. 2007 comes to mind, lots of sleet/ice when it looked for so long like we'd get hammered...and Feb. 2006, we got 8-10" or something like that, but that storm ended up hitting areas to the north like Philly and NYC a lot harder...and in Jan-Feb 2005 we had some chances that ended up being a lot less, though it was cold I recall).

Ahhh, good memories of that, as I dig up my photos! I remember leaving work early Friday, getting the last minute shopping done (only chance I had to do it) with checkout lines backed up down the aisles. Seeing the first of the snow begin around 9:30PM. 9" on the ground by mid-morning on the 19th, total of 20". Here's some pictures: Pretty much looked like this for much of the day on Dec. 19. Icicles the following day after the storm.