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Jan 26-27 storm obs/nowcasting/etc


Ian

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The lwx map looks oddly low to me. I just went out and measured and have 11.5" uniformly on the ground. Take away for compaction and the rain that washed away much of the 3" first round, and 13" seems reasonable.

EDIT: I went back and looked again at the snowfall map, and there were a couple of reports right around here for 13+".

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The lwx map looks oddly low to me. I just went out and measured and have 11.5" uniformly on the ground. Take away for compaction and the rain that washed away much of the 3" first round, and 13" seems reasonable.

There's a 13.4" in Garrison just to your NW, and 13.0" in Pimlico... seems fine. Which map are you looking at?

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BWI had 1.82" qpf with a snow total of 7.8" for the day

some fell as rain, I know, but I did better than that with a little over 9". However, this was one of those marginal events temp-wise where I often do better than them.

How much qpf did we have for the biggies last year? Pretty amazing 1.8 fell in such a short time period.

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Thats very possible.. Im looking out of the window right now, and the cars dont even seem to have snow around the sidewalls of the tires.. In some spots, the driveway is only "dusted".. Probably temp. Its weird.. I should take a pic..

Where are you at? I am on Shore Dr in Londontown..

Sorry, went to bed before responding last night.

I'm over in Selby on the Bay. I didn't go out of my way to get a good total, but even with compaction we had at least 5". It's melting fast though. The roads were perfectly fine this morning, even in the neighborhood. Had no trouble getting to the Metro in our Focus this morning.

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Thats very possible.. Im looking out of the window right now, and the cars dont even seem to have snow around the sidewalls of the tires.. In some spots, the driveway is only "dusted".. Probably temp. Its weird.. I should take a pic..

Where are you at? I am on Shore Dr in Londontown..

I'm over on Londontown, a block down from the WBVFD and I got a good 4-5 inches.

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This is the heaviest snow weight-wise I've ever experienced. I couldn't imagine shoveling much of it. The snowblower was choking. There will be some heart-attacks today and tomorrow, I suspect. :(

Yeah, just clearing out the 2-3" of wet crap we had in the driveway last night was painful. I feel bad for the guys who have 8"+ of slop to contend with.

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How much qpf did we have for the biggies last year? Pretty amazing 1.8 fell in such a short time period.

pretty hard to believe yesterday's snow when you compare it to the qpf from last year's blizzards

see, I am still half right....this winter has and will continue to find a way to screw us!

12/19-1.57"

2/6-2.55"

2/10-.94"

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Initial totals from the NWS:

DCA: 5.0" (total 8.8" for the season) ...1.52" liquid (daily record beaten by 0.2")

IAD: 5.1" (total 8.9" for the season) ...1.31" liquid (daily record beaten by 0.54")

BWI: 7.8" (daily record broken by 0.9". total 12.1" for the season) ...1.82" liquid (daily record beaten by 0.49")

NOTE: IAD snow total has to be underdone... METAR was reporting as much as 9" of snow on the ground, with SNINCR reports of at least 6"

I am shocked by IAD's total. I thought they got upwards of 10" or so.

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This was an awesome storm. I measured 9.5" and with 0.25" for Part 1 of the storm giving me 9.75"

This is heaviest wet snow I have seen in a long time. We lost power for 6 hours from approximately 7:00 pm to 1:00 am

Storm went from drizzle, to moderate rain, to heavy rain, to massive sleet storm, back to rain and sleet mix to rain, sleet and snow mix and then massive snow flakes and finally, to pouring snow that lasted about 6 hours. The time from moderate rain to full blown snow was around 30 minutes.

Thunder and lightening during the massive sleet storm

Jebwalk around 5ish was amazing with snowing coming down 1.5 to 2" hour. Snow was just piling up.

Interesting that the temperature never fell below 30 here. It saved us while power was out. House never got that cold.

Again this was an amazing storm and one I will always cherish!

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BWI had 1.82" qpf with a snow total of 7.8" for the day

some fell as rain, I know, but I did better than that with a little over 9". However, this was one of those marginal events temp-wise where I often do better than them.

I hope they correct that snow total. Their obs show more than that.

As far as heartattacks, you're probably right Phin...

Several 6" diameter branches down on my street. Deciduous trees, not pine trees. First thing I did this morning is take a snowbrush and try to knock as much snow as I could off the tree branches. Branches that are usually 8-10' above the ground were bent down to touch the ground. Main roads like US-29 and MD-32 were fine coming into work, but side streets are still a mess.

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Hey all, I am about 10 miles WSW of IAD and can confirm that I got to 10 inches here - about a half during the AM and the rest with the Thump. They'll fix their amounts shortly I assume. I was measuring every hour because I knew this stuff would be compacting like crazy...I may well have been closer to a foot because Im finding some depths closer to 13-16 inches in some spots in open areas...I dont have a melted qpf for me, but this was the heaviest snow Ive ever shoveled. Felt like last year's shoveling.

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Herndon's experience very similar to mine. 2 inches of wet snow in the AM, drizzle and snizzle throughout the day, then light rain picked up as the ull approached, then moderate rain and sleet, then heavy sleet, then moderate sleet/snow, then heavy snow for about 6 hours straight. The lightening never stopped, it was clustered consistently throughout the duration of the storm, even when the snow began to lighten.

Total accums including the AM were roughly twelve inches here in Ellicott City. Shoveling the driveway was a back pain, but well worth it for the storm. Definitely one of the more intriguing storms that I've ever experienced. Amazing how area just 20 or 30 miles south and east saw a third or a fourth of the accums we did. Not surprising considering we NEVER EVEN GOT BELOW FREEZING. It snowed the entire time at 33 degrees. Talk about upper level dynamics. What a cool storm to be a part of.

Hopefully we can squeeze out one more good one before winter's up.

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28.9°F in Clarksburg with a light W wind at 5mph at 11:20am. DP is a balmy 23°F; lots of low level moisture out there.

Final storm measurements were 8.9" for the ULL and 2.2" for the leading coastal for a storm total of 11.2". Not a lot of compaction going on since the snow is so dense. Snow depth stands at 8.5" although I did not dig down below the crusty 1/2" that was on the ground when the storm started two nights ago.

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Hopefully we can squeeze out one more good one before winter's up.

If you haven't already, check out Don Sutherland's February outlook on the main page. :)

It was really a fluke how the Boxing Day storm missed us while smashing Atlanta, Raleigh, Norfolk, Ocean City, and Phl on north...without that bizarre miss of just our area, we'd be talking about a 1996-like La Nina winter. NYC is freaking out right now -- last night's 18-20 inches has put them in the 55-inch range for winter, and they average like 25!

Based on his forecast, we could see a continuation of the general pattern and have more chances.

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Hey all, I am about 10 miles WSW of IAD and can confirm that I got to 10 inches here - about a half during the AM and the rest with the Thump. They'll fix their amounts shortly I assume. I was measuring every hour because I knew this stuff would be compacting like crazy...I may well have been closer to a foot because Im finding some depths closer to 13-16 inches in some spots in open areas...I dont have a melted qpf for me, but this was the heaviest snow Ive ever shoveled. Felt like last year's shoveling.

Just a reminder-- measuring every hour will overstate the snowfall. The 6-hour rule already accounts for compaction in longer storms-- this storm was just so short it only really required one, or at most two measurements after one clearing around 9 pm depending on when your snow started.

Also, there seems to be a common misconception in these observation threads: yes, wet snow presses down, so it's lower snow accumulation rate as you go along during the storm, but it's dry, fluffy snow that actually compacts (like lake effect-- and the huge discrepencies between snowfall and snow depth). Wet snow does not compact nearly as much after the storm is done. What was happening last night was melting, not compaction.

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Just a reminder-- measuring every hour will overstate the snowfall. The 6-hour rule already accounts for compaction in longer storms-- this storm was just so short it only really required one, or at most two measurements after one clearing around 9 pm depending on when your snow started.

Also, there seems to be a common misconception in these observation threads: yes, wet snow presses down, so it's lower snow accumulation rate as you go along during the storm, but it's dry, fluffy snow that actually compacts (like lake effect-- and the huge discrepencies between snowfall and snow depth). Wet snow does not compact nearly as much after the storm is done. What was happening last night was melting, not compaction.

I can agree with you that this method will cause a difference when compared to the "accepted" method, but I don't agree that it is an inaccurate way to measure snowfall. If I clean a board, go back in two hours and measure two inches, then two inches of snow fell. Period.

It seems that the "accepted" way to measure snow is to do it in such a way that the ground total will be close to the intermediate measurements. But if we are measuring "snow FALL" then I don't know why you couldn't measure as often as you want, provided the measurements can be taken accurately.

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