gravitylover

I was going to do the right thing and measure before the rain but... sleep. My last eyeball measurement was about a half inch but it was snowing pretty hard at that point. Now, after ~8 hours of rain and fog there's still a nice coating on natural and elevated surfaces, pavement never got covered. It's still 32° so maybe it'll hold on for a bit longer.

I have light to moderate white rain, temp is on the way down and is hovering at 32 at the moment but with a mostly south wind I'm questioning whether it goes any lower. 

While it's always nice to see flakes it kinda sux when you know it's futile. I think I'm over this winter.

3 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

the sunless part really pisses me off, I hope we dont get that for the spring and summer.

More sun = more growth = more allergens waiting to ruin your day  A couple of years ago we had a very wet and gloomy spring that didn't really end until around Memorial Day. This left the local forests with nearly no understory until late June and it never fully recovered from the slow start. Unfortunately the mold was pretty terrible...

34 minutes ago, Brian5671 said:

great year for VT/NH/ME ski resorts.  I'm heading to Okemo in March-hoping the snows continue for another month

 The difference a bit further north is significant. It was thigh deep or better at Smuggs this morning. 

9 minutes ago, MJO812 said:

Same areas keep getting hit. Getting old.

My friends in northern VT, northern NH and the Daks are lovin' it.

4 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

there's really no abnormally cold air anywhere.  I think we pull a perfect game/no hitter and go the way of the great snowless winters like 1972-73, 1997-98, 2001-02, etc.

Although 1997-98 did have one meaningless wet snowfall event on the first day of Spring.

 

And holy sht what a storm that was. 17" of tree snapping glue! It fell in just a few hours with insane winds and the temp dropped 30 degrees while it was happening. That was one of the most memorable and damaging storms of the last 25 years where I live.

I had a great looking dusting.

Solid winter going on apparently. It's similar around the Daks and Green Mtn spine up north from pics and reports.

Well, I got home just in time. It fizzled for 5 minutes as the temp dropped from 34 to 32 within the last 3 miles of home. 3,489 miles with nothing more than some light rain in the Lower Keys and finishing with heavy flakeage as I pulled above 500 feet coming up the hill.

It's snowing nicely here at home and I have a cold beer helping me to wind down after starting the day 700 miles away and having lunch on the beach in Virginia. 

I'm ok with it, we don't need them anyway.

So what's it looking like on Sunday? I'm driving back from FL and have summer tires on the car.

12 hours ago, HVSnowLover said:

Yea I feel I need to go somewhere at some point this winter to see snow but Killington is too far thats why I wish the snow line actually would at least push down to the Catskills.

Too far, you're kidding right? Why do so many people think that anything outside their regular routine is too far to drive. I know I'm on the other side of that, I'll hop in the car to drive to Burlington to have a beer with friends, I'll go to Ellicotville to go mtn biking and I just drove to The Keys because it's easier than flying and renting and stuff. 2.5-3 hours seems like a nothing little ride...

25 minutes ago, Rtd208 said:

I think some of us are getting to caught up in what the models are showing instead of what the pattern is doing.

Ya think? For many the hobby has morphed into modelology rather than meteorology.

4 hours ago, Snow88 said:

Inland weenies rejoice 

Dude you really need to just move. You're NYPD right? Head for the north Bronx or Westchester. 

No driving was pretty sketchy and I was kinda busy   I have the worst tires on my car for cold slippery roads and this was right at that hairy edge of "oh shit". I've only seen it happen at MUCH lower temps and only when surfaces are already frozen and coated. With everything including the air well above freezing this was so unexpected and awesome to experience. It was right at that fuzzy top edge of the cloud deck and there was nothing at all above or below that thin layer. I obviously didn't have much to do other than cruise in the dark after that so had hours to sit and analyze it and just kept buzzing about how cool it was. I think my wife got a little bit annoyed  

Woot I'm famous  

2 hours ago, CPcantmeasuresnow said:

Was there any snow remnants anywhere along the higher elevations of 81 in Virginia?

Nothing other than the rime accumulations that were happening while we drove through.

I'm in FL but my kids said it was snowing at home last night. 

The Blue Ridge Pkwy and Skyline Drive is one of the best drives in the country. It adds at least a day to the trip and if you have time is absolutely worth it but, not at this time of year. 

I wanted to add that when we were driving through the riming zone the sky was blue above us and when we'd pop up a few feet above the cloud the temp would jump and we were back on dry ground then would descend back into it again. 12-1500 feet above the clouds it was 5>7° warmer than at that riming point and right below it was dry too but there was a ~300 foot thick zone it was happening in. Cool stuff...

I saw something I don't think I've seen like this before today. On I81 in VA as we got above 1200 feet and reached the upper reaches of the cloud deck the temp dropped to 35 and the rime frost started accumulating. At one point around 1500 feet it was an inch deep. It was so pretty the way everything with any sort of westerly exposure was dusted. I've seen riming before but never accumulating on otherwise bare ground with the air above freezing. I also didn't realize that 81 and 77 run at such high altitude,over 2k for a long time and popping up to 2900 at points.

Well, it looks like I'm getting lucky with a nice weather day for a drive to Florida. I'll be back around the 10th so if it's going to snow this winter this is when it's going to happen. Enjoy the snow guys  

Wasn't much of a winter until March of 1888 either.

I think it's more important that it flurries enough to whiten the surface of what frozen stuff didn't get washed away. It also looks like it's snowing fairly hard along the Berkshire Anticline right now. 

What's wrong with oatmeal? Meh...

It's snowing

I go for milk, cookies and beer. Yes it would be devastating if I couldn't have these things, especially the cookies and beer.

4 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

Oh I was wondering because so many talk about the gulf stream and how it fuels our storms and yet it passes 150 miles SE of Montauk so if it was just that then the storms should get weaker farther north.

 

Sorta. The disparity between warm and cold air is greater so storms continue to hold their strength long enough to unload before finally moving out. At least that's the way my simple brain sees it.

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

Wow that was their Feb 1978!  Is it common for that area to get clobbered when we have a mild winter down here?  Why are these storms much more common up there than they are at our latitude, Chris?

Also, see my post about 30"+ events at coastal locations at sea level.

 

That much closer to the cold air source.

28 minutes ago, NEG NAO said:

Once again a strong HP is in place for days prior to the storm then as the storm approaches it escapes and the heaviest snow is inland - this solution has a reasonable chance of verifying IMO and its only a week away

I love when I'm in the jackpot zone a week out