gravitylover

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.

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.

It makes me think of cookies.

A lot of things make me think of cookies 

35* windy and wet. Ooh boy fun.

43 minutes ago, uncle W said:

don't take I81 unless you want to drive behind a line of trucks...its also colder than I95 ...I like to avoid the DC area...its roads are as crowded as ours...

Avoiding DC was my thinking too that's why 81. I guess to avoid the cities that's the way the trucks go. Bummer.

Yeah it's obviously colder but that's really the question, is it too cold and is that where the wintry weather will be happening if it's going to happen with this. I was figuring on leaving myself nearly a full extra day (need to be there Sat morning) by leaving here early Thursday. Should I leave before that?

Hey all, yeah I know don't ask for imby predictions but... I need to drive down to FL on Thursday/Friday and this storm coming up looks like it might make that difficult. How far inland will it be mostly rain, IOW will I95 or I81 be wet or white? My road trip car isn't the greatest winter storm car but will be fine if it's just wet. WWAWWD? (What would a weather weenie do) is the storm going to be a dud, am I overthinking this, don't worry about it dude just keep those margaritas in focus and all will be well...?

I got so thoroughly hosed on that storm. I think I was right about 6". Meh...

So in the last three days I've rolled through every significant mountain range within 100 miles of home, The high country of the Taconics and Berks look the most like they should look this time of year but the only snow on the ground is from the storm last weekend so it's thin. Northerly slopes in CT look surprisingly good, I think because the last storm finished with some wet stuff so like by me the snow is packed down better and not all sugary. It's too bad it's about to go away because it's almost there... You know it has been warm though because there is ongoing construction just about everywhere and below 1k you're hard pressed to find fully frozen bodies of water and real winter really is above 1500 other than in select spots especially in the Catskills.

27* here on the hill but all around it's 8-10 lower and at KDXR it's 10*.

Yeah time to get the golf clubs cleaned and the tennis racket restrung. 

Was it the first or second storm that month that destroyed my area. We got 8-10 of soggy heavy crap that came down hard and fast then got windy and brought down thousands of trees. The power was out for 5 1/2 days then came on just a few hours before it started snowing again and went out for two more. No heat or running water during the winter sucks ass. Now I have a generator but can't run the well pump with it, at least we can run the heat, fridge and most other stuff.

I made a run around the southern Catskills and over the southern end of Shawangunk Ridge. It looks like real winter above about 1k feet and looking north, at the south faces of the high peaks are, it really looks great all snowcapped and heavily rimed. As you get further west past Liberty it's winter for sure rather than the barely winter it is here east of the river at the same elevation.

I know it's too far out for accuracy but I need to drive down to FL on 1/30-31 and don't really want to buy new winter tires for the car. Are the chances I have at least above freezing temps for the drive pretty good? I'm good with rain but snow kind of leaves my car parked without the right shoes. I'll worry about the home trip on 2/10 when the time comes.

I expected 3, got 5 but it changed to rain Im pretty sure there was 20 minutes of sleet but we were at dinner with friends so I only saw it out the window. There's a very wet, very dense 3-3 1/2 on the ground now and it's 31°.