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February 5-6 Storm Threat II


Baroclinic Zone

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Cool, this board always made me feel I was doing it wrong not clearing every 6 hours. What I usually do is clear after 12 hours or so (if the storm last that long). I also clear when we have 2 part storms like the 1/28 event with the 1" before the main event, and this past tues/wed. IMO 6 hour measurements can exagerate snow totals, but I know its been talked about before and it is what it is.

Like Will said...anything between 6 and 24 hrs is fine. COOP sites used to only measure every morning at 12z.

Snow measuring can be tough and an inexact science. You can get wildy different totals by measuring every 24hrs (or an event final total) versus measuring and clearing every 6hrs. That is especially true in wild LES storms...just ask LakeEffectKing.

I'm a believer that measuring every 24hrs can penalize you in a HECS when you start talking 1-2ft amounts. The more you get the more compaction the new snowfall takes from the increasing weight of the snow building on top of it. If you hypothetically have 10" in 6hrs and clear....then get another 10" the following 6hrs you will have a total of 20". If you measure at the end of the 12hrs you may have something more like 16-18" depending on the snow density. If it is technically the same average rate over that 6hr span then why should the 2nd half be penalized more than the 1st half?

It's a good debate that comes up quite often. I think the 6hr clearing deal is a good place in the middle to combat excessive settlement versus inflation from measuring too often. I like doing my measurements/clearing/snow cores every 6hrs at 00z, 06z, 12z, and 18z so that I can compare my liquid equivalent to the local ASOS sites with the newer all-weather precipitation gauges. Then I can see how the ratios changes over the course of a storm as well.

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Like Will said...anything between 6 and 24 hrs is fine. COOP sites used to only measure every morning at 12z.

Snow measuring can be tough and an inexact science. You can get wildy different totals by measuring every 24hrs (or an event final total) versus measuring and clearing every 6hrs. That is especially true in wild LES storms...just ask LakeEffectKing.

I'm a believer that measuring every 24hrs can penalize you in a HECS when you start talking 1-2ft amounts. The more you get the more compaction the new snowfall takes from the increasing weight of the snow building on top of it. If you hypothetically have 10" in 6hrs and clear....then get another 10" the following 6hrs you will have a total of 20". If you measure at the end of the 12hrs you may have something more like 16-18" depending on the snow density. If it is technically the same average rate over that 6hr span then why should the 2nd half be penalized more than the 1st half?

It's a good debate that comes up quite often. I think the 6hr clearing deal is a good place in the middle to combat excessive settlement versus inflation from measuring too often. I like doing my measurements/clearing/snow cores every 6hrs at 00z, 06z, 12z, and 18z so that I can compare my liquid equivalent to the local ASOS sites with the newer all-weather precipitation gauges. Then I can see how the ratios changes over the course of a storm as well.

Yes.

32.0\31

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Jeez, what is up with you and nipples... I mean that avatar is so...

...Nevermind. You said Naples.

My mother in law now thinks I caused her roof to leak by adding the de-icing tablets.

Her 10" thick ice dam has nothing to do with it

Filled nylons with salt, they have cut 3/4 way through in 4 hours. Hung over the gutters to the back of the jam in three spots on the back two in front. Weird buying nylons and salt though, felt like Wiz, should have bought a 40 too.

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Like Will said...anything between 6 and 24 hrs is fine. COOP sites used to only measure every morning at 12z.

Snow measuring can be tough and an inexact science. You can get wildy different totals by measuring every 24hrs (or an event final total) versus measuring and clearing every 6hrs. That is especially true in wild LES storms...just ask LakeEffectKing.

I'm a believer that measuring every 24hrs can penalize you in a HECS when you start talking 1-2ft amounts. The more you get the more compaction the new snowfall takes from the increasing weight of the snow building on top of it. If you hypothetically have 10" in 6hrs and clear....then get another 10" the following 6hrs you will have a total of 20". If you measure at the end of the 12hrs you may have something more like 16-18" depending on the snow density. If it is technically the same average rate over that 6hr span then why should the 2nd half be penalized more than the 1st half?

It's a good debate that comes up quite often. I think the 6hr clearing deal is a good place in the middle to combat excessive settlement versus inflation from measuring too often. I like doing my measurements/clearing/snow cores every 6hrs at 00z, 06z, 12z, and 18z so that I can compare my liquid equivalent to the local ASOS sites with the newer all-weather precipitation gauges. Then I can see how the ratios changes over the course of a storm as well.

Thanks for the written out response. I find my totals usualy correspond with Will, the PNS, and the general area. My total is 2" shy of Ray, and from watching radar during storms I have to believe I might be at his total or maybe slightly above if I measured more often. Its in interesting topic, and since snow measuring obviously isn't an exact sceince I'm fine with either way of measuring.

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