OceanStWx

If I had to do it all over again, I would check my ego. I picked up clubs and headed right for the tees with everyone else. I spent so many years slicing off the tee that I started fearing playing golf altogether. Took a long time to get over that. When I moved to Iowa for my first NWS job (2008) I dedicated myself to trying to improve. Bought my first real set of clubs, started watching the Golf Channel self-help shows, hit the range a couple times a week. I broke 50 for the first time in 2010 (shot a 46) on the little 9 hole course just north of the office, Rustic Ridge. 7 years later I got my handicap index down to 9.7. Someday I'll tell my son how he blew that up.

I've done Fox Ridge once before. Spring Meadows was the course I joined because it was close to work. Nonesuch River was always my preferred course in Portland (vicinity). And Belgrade Lakes is close to my in-laws and probably my other most frequently played course up here.

I've come that close as well. 4th hole Falmouth (ME) CC from 165. Pin right center, right at the bottom of a ridge. I hit the top of the ridge and gravity worked in my favor. After hanging on the edge of the slope it started to wobble and trickle back down. It always stayed just outside the hole, but settled 6 inches away. I had another at Spring Meadows in Gray, 16th hole about 110. I threw my gap wedge at the center of the green. I normally hit that around 115, so I played it back and tried to drive one in with some zip on it. I surprised myself when it spun back 10 yards, just missing hitting the flag stick on the way by. So that makes my longest hole out 85 yards (for eagle), but it was a scramble so I feel like it only half counts.

Even the pros are 50/50 at like 10 ft. So pretty much everyone is 2 putting anyway. The key is getting closer to the hole. And to get close to the hole you have to hit it farther (with all your clubs). My game really changed when I increased my distance by 20 yards or so through the bag.

Any golf weenies in here ever read up on strokes gained? My wife got me Every Shot Counts years ago and cover to cover was a fascinating book about how to look at advanced golf statistics. I even found an Excel spreadsheet to track my own strokes gained vs. a scratch golfer. Basically I lose the majority of my strokes from approach shots (mostly approaches from the fairway believe it or not). I always thought that I would lower my scores if I focused on short game, because that's the conventional advice. Turns out it's my long game that sucks, too many penalty strokes, poor tee shots, and chunky irons.

Got a couple indoor simulator locations in the PWM area now which I love. They use the same tech as the Golf Channel, so it's a pretty realistic experience (if you drop the gimmes down to 3 ft or less). Trying to get that club speed into the low 100s more frequently. Actually joined a league this winter, which is slowly bringing my game back after the kid destroyed my handicap.

Tip is right about one thing, measuring as close to the end of the snowfall as possible is ideal (and recommended by the way). But if you think about this all in an impact sense, what makes more sense: plows waiting until the snow stops and removing snow, or plows nearly continuously keeping roads clear? I would argue a plow operator is much closer to observing the 6 hourly snowfall amounts than the 24 hourly. It's one thing we've discussed internally about the 6" in 12 hours vs 9" in 24 hours warning criteria. If anything the lighter, longer duration 9" in 24 hours is more impactful because road crews are out longer.

Starting to look that way.

Obviously a long way to go, but even a moderate snow storm next week would give PWM a shot at top 3.

I mean there is probably a fair chance that sea scroll era measurements were just depth increases. I sincerely doubt some knickered colonist was clearing a patch every 24 hours to measure new snow.

Well the observation is the airport, not downtown anyway. So Winthrop is far more representative of that than downtown. Of course many argue about Tarmac observations and not where people live, but that's the way it's done. ASOS is BOS officially, and Winthrop is an acceptable distance from the ASOS and has an observer. Outside of Winthrop their closest active site is Franklin Park Zoo, and that's way too far away for climate purposes.

Hmm, 2.75" with 27" on the ground for 3/14. That does seem suspiciously like a snow core not a melted precip.

Accuweather troll farm in Wilmington?

You do see that happen all the time. Our hydrologist goes through CoCoRaHS every morning to set those to missing.

It's pretty hard to slant stick a rain gauge, but people do it.

Some of it may be removing it for the final snow map purposes. Even if your report is accurate, if it sticks out enough from surrounding obs you'll get a pretty ugly bullseye with the mapping and it helps to smooth things to remove it. The only way to do that is by taking it out of the PNS (because the software pulls the metadata at the bottom to create the map). It may not necessarily be a commentary on your reporting.

Forgot MWN too (but they aren't climate). They are 6 hourly, but a crapshoot with the wind. We have a very old group of Coops up here, and they are pretty much uniformly walk out at 7 AM and measure snow. We know this because some bad mornings they say they don't have snow just yet because they haven't walked outside (too icy, windy, cold, etc). But it's also hard to convince someone to volunteer their time to meticulously measure how much snow falls. It's a commitment to be around all the time and have a back up for when you're on vacation.

Obviously the big issue is melt/compaction with the once a day measurement. If you aren't checking for the max depth, you are likely to miss it. If you work from home it's easier to check frequently. But say it snows in the morning, you head to work, it stops at lunchtime, you come home, sleep, get up and measure at 7 AM the next day and the whole time temps were around freezing. You could "lose" a bunch of snow in that case. This is why our spotter training focuses mainly on snow (sorry @weatherwiz)

Most offices are going to have at least two airports measuring every 6 hours, to keep consistent with old WSO stations (like PWM and CON, BOS/BDL/ORH/PVD, etc).

I know up here we have 5 climate sites. PWM and CON have paid observers measuring every 6 hours, GYX obviously is staffed round the clock and does 6 hour measurements, and MHT as far as I know reports their 24 max snowfall at midnight (AUG doesn't have snow obs )

If the mets are dedicated posters/lurkers on the board they know the slant stickers from the good obs. Some of you are so neurotic about snowfall measurements that I know you wouldn't artificially inflate your totals.

I think he gave you the 1st number in Merrimack too. ME1.

PWM actually has 2.5" officially since midnight, so that's 9th snowiest.

I don't know why it drops out of the PNS sometimes.

Looks like PWM has climbed into the 9th snowiest March already. This is also probably the 2nd snowiest week in March.