Snowpack vs Torch

[snowman21]

Officially a trace by NWS/NCDC standards down here in the southern part of Greenwich CT. There are some piles/banks left, and some patches where a few inches of ice remain, but there's way too many wide open bare spots to count it as an official inch of snow cover.

[psv88]

Strange that in some areas in central nassau bare lots, then others still have 6+ everywhere, those fenced in, trees etc...where no trees or fence, mainly bare ground, say 70% now. in the woods still a few inches...i think we lost most of it today

[RU848789]

Going to be a close call - as of this morning, I've only lost 1-2" of snowpack, so I still have nearly 6" everywhere on my front and back yards. Plenty of yards and open areas that have no shade just have patchy snow (from drifts) left here, but I guess I have just enough shade to make a difference. I'm hoping I still have 2" left by Saturday morning and can then survive the colder days until Monday with an inch of snowcover. And then get some more!

I think I'm going to make it to Monday. Amazingly, while we had 6-7" yesterday morning, we only lost about an inch in 24 hours, ending this am, as I still have 5-6" on my front/back lawns. The small park across the street, which has some trees, still has 2-4", with the first bare spots just starting to appear, where the sun has been toughest. Most yards that have no tree cover and face south or even west, are mostly bare now. Amazing the difference orientation and some shade (I'd guess my yard gets about half the sunlight as an open area would) can make. Even with today's warmth, I'm expecting to still have at least 3-4" left by tomorrow am, when it gets cooler, so I think I then make it to Monday, which is 58 days.

[Analog96]

I drive through Mt. Sinai most days to go to the store or get gasoline (the town is a few hundred feet away) and the 2" report is bogus...

I don't know about the exact geography out there, but yesterday was the last day of my snowcover in Elizabeth. I traced today. Anyway. I work in Elizabeth, right near the Goethals Bridge, and where I work, they lost snowcover about 3 days before I did. I live 3 miles WNW of where I work.

[Sundog]

Woods around here still had solid snowcover this morning, though it was thin as hell. I suspect most of it will be gone when I get home later.

[Brian5671]

Officially a trace by NWS/NCDC standards down here in the southern part of Greenwich CT. There are some piles/banks left, and some patches where a few inches of ice remain, but there's way too many wide open bare spots to count it as an official inch of snow cover.

wow-we're doing much better up here--I'd say still 90% coverage, a few bare spots, but a good 4-6 inches still remains in most spots...despite the cold coming back, weekend will still be near 40, so add'l melting to occur-we need a good refresher next week although I fear rain from the 1st wave and 2nd wave misses....

[Alpha5]

Officially a trace by NWS/NCDC standards down here in the southern part of Greenwich CT. There are some piles/banks left, and some patches where a few inches of ice remain, but there's way too many wide open bare spots to count it as an official inch of snow cover.

Up in the northern part I measured over a foot yesterday. But driving around town i can verify your reports.....

Its amazing what a north facing lawn that is well shaded can do in these situations.

[NorthShoreWx]

1PM February 18.

62 degrees:

[NorthShoreWx]

Interesting to view the devastation in East Northport just since this morning:

http://www.instacam....ek.asp?id=ESTNR

[Alpha5]

Today:

North facing lawn: 10-11

East Facing Lawn: 7-8

South facing lawn: Trace-1

I have been taking measurements on the north side all winter, so my total for today is 10, a loss of 3 from yesterdays 13

[FreeRain]

Strange that in some areas in central nassau bare lots, then others still have 6+ everywhere, those fenced in, trees etc...where no trees or fence, mainly bare ground, say 70% now. in the woods still a few inches...i think we lost most of it today

My North facing front has about 4".

South facing back is half bare.

[jconsor]

NWS office in Upton, Long Island still had 1" snow cover as of this morning:

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/reports.html?region=Northeast&var=snowdepth&sort=value&units=e&dy=2011&dm=2&dd=19&dh=18

If they can make it to 1PM this afternoon with snow cover, they will reach 56 days of consecutive snow cover, breaking the record set in 1947-48. (Records have been kept since 1947).

[A-L-E-X]

NWS office in Upton, Long Island still had 1" snow cover as of this morning:

http://www.nohrsc.no...m=2&dd=19&dh=18

If they can make it to 1PM this afternoon with snow cover, they will reach 56 days of consecutive snow cover, breaking the record set in 1947-48. (Records have been kept since 1947).

What a great winter to have started their record keeping

[Guest Pamela]

Today:

North facing lawn: 10-11

East Facing Lawn: 7-8

South facing lawn: Trace-1

I have been taking measurements on the north side all winter, so my total for today is 10, a loss of 3 from yesterdays 13

Generally about 7" of snow (really icy crust) left on the ground here as of 4:00 PM Feb. 20...this is in areas that do not have particularly good exposure to sunshine....which is frankly much of the property. There are some spots where bare ground is showing up...I'd estimate that accounts for 10% of the real estate.

[RU848789]

I think I'm going to make it to Monday. Amazingly, while we had 6-7" yesterday morning, we only lost about an inch in 24 hours, ending this am, as I still have 5-6" on my front/back lawns. The small park across the street, which has some trees, still has 2-4", with the first bare spots just starting to appear, where the sun has been toughest. Most yards that have no tree cover and face south or even west, are mostly bare now. Amazing the difference orientation and some shade (I'd guess my yard gets about half the sunlight as an open area would) can make. Even with today's warmth, I'm expecting to still have at least 3-4" left by tomorrow am, when it gets cooler, so I think I then make it to Monday, which is 58 days.

Well, to quote Barry Manilow, looks like we made it, as today is day 57 and with snow on the way, day 58 and at least 59 seem to be a foregone conclusion. I know this isn't Central Park, but it's a decent comparator for us, as we're about 28 miles SW of CPK. As of now, we still have about 1-3" on about 75% of our property, an inch or less on about 10% of our property and bare ground making up the last 15%; this is in both the front and back yards (the side yards are very small and not worth mentioning (although they're mostly snow covered, too). Some here and elsewhere have been curious why we have so much and it's kind of interesting (at least to me, lol). If you really want the gory details, there are several reasons why we still have snow, as do a few of our neighbors on our side of the street. First, and foremost, our property is relatively shady, with many large trees, particularly on our neighbor's yard to our south, shielding the worst of the sun - and the energy of the sun is, by far, the biggest variable in melting snow, assuming all other local conditions that can affect snow melting (and sublimation) are identical, such as temperature, humidity and wind.

Another key variable, related to the amount of sun one gets, is orientation. Our front yard faces east and our back yard faces west, while the small south portion of our yard (on side of our house), is about 4-5 feet below the level of our neighbor's yard, via railroad ties, so the southern portion of our yard gets little direct sunlight. In addition, two other borders of our front yard (the front and the side next to our driveway) were covered in feet of snow from shoveling the many storms we've had - as a result, these two areas, which are sunnier than the rest of the yard, had so much snow on them that melting wasn't really an issue. Lastly, directly next to our house, on the fourth side, shade was abundant. This meant that on all 4 sides of our front yard, there was very little melting going on, such that no bare spots developed, which are usually the key to getting the whole yard to melt: quite often an area next to some asphalt melts first and then once bare asphalt or grass is exposed, it's far easier for a melting "front" to move across a yard, since heat transfer rates from warm, bare ground to the snow is far greater than heat transfer rates from warm air to the surface of the snow.

Our back yard gets even more shade, especially on the south side, so melting was similarly slow. I drove around Metuchen today and it's quite possible we have the most snow of any yard in the entire borough. Amazing really. Most yards are mostly bare and some are completely bare - I'd say less than 10% of yards are more than half covered by snow. I guess we're just lucky, lol.

Does anyone know how far Central Park made it? The last I recall seeing was 2" several days ago and with the warmth of the end of the week, presumably they didn't make past the weekend.

[Isotherm]

Well, to quote Barry Manilow, looks like we made it, as today is day 57 and with snow on the way, day 58 and at least 59 seem to be a foregone conclusion. I know this isn't Central Park, but it's a decent comparator for us, as we're about 28 miles SW of CPK. As of now, we still have about 1-3" on about 75% of our property, an inch or less on about 10% of our property and bare ground making up the last 15%; this is in both the front and back yards (the side yards are very small and not worth mentioning (although they're mostly snow covered, too). Some here and elsewhere have been curious why we have so much and it's kind of interesting (at least to me, lol). If you really want the gory details, there are several reasons why we still have snow, as do a few of our neighbors on our side of the street. First, and foremost, our property is relatively shady, with many large trees, particularly on our neighbor's yard to our south, shielding the worst of the sun - and the energy of the sun is, by far, the biggest variable in melting snow, assuming all other local conditions that can affect snow melting (and sublimation) are identical, such as temperature, humidity and wind.

Another key variable, related to the amount of sun one gets, is orientation. Our front yard faces east and our back yard faces west, while the small south portion of our yard (on side of our house), is about 4-5 feet below the level of our neighbor's yard, via railroad ties, so the southern portion of our yard gets little direct sunlight. In addition, two other borders of our front yard (the front and the side next to our driveway) were covered in feet of snow from shoveling the many storms we've had - as a result, these two areas, which are sunnier than the rest of the yard, had so much snow on them that melting wasn't really an issue. Lastly, directly next to our house, on the fourth side, shade was abundant. This meant that on all 4 sides of our front yard, there was very little melting going on, such that no bare spots developed, which are usually the key to getting the whole yard to melt: quite often an area next to some asphalt melts first and then once bare asphalt or grass is exposed, it's far easier for a melting "front" to move across a yard, since heat transfer rates from warm, bare ground to the snow is far greater than heat transfer rates from warm air to the surface of the snow.

Our back yard gets even more shade, especially on the south side, so melting was similarly slow. I drove around Metuchen today and it's quite possible we have the most snow of any yard in the entire borough. Amazing really. Most yards are mostly bare and some are completely bare - I'd say less than 10% of yards are more than half covered by snow. I guess we're just lucky, lol.

Does anyone know how far Central Park made it? The last I recall seeing was 2" several days ago and with the warmth of the end of the week, presumably they didn't make past the weekend.

Central park made it to 54 days consecutive cover. By Friday morning, the 18th, they had 0" on the ground. Thursday the 17th was their last day, with 2" depth.

[Alpha5]

Central park made it to 54 days consecutive cover. By Friday morning, the 18th, they had 0" on the ground. Thursday the 17th was their last day, with 2" depth.

Wow..so close, just 3 more days and we would have had the new record

[RU848789]

Central park made it to 54 days consecutive cover. By Friday morning, the 18th, they had 0" on the ground. Thursday the 17th was their last day, with 2" depth.

Anyone know what the Central Park location attributes (orientation, degree of shade, closeness to asphalt, etc.) are and what their exact criteria are for snowcover (x% coverage with Y% average depth over Z% area?)?

[Isotherm]

Anyone know what the Central Park location attributes (orientation, degree of shade, closeness to asphalt, etc.) are and what their exact criteria are for snowcover (x% coverage with Y% average depth over Z% area?)?

From what I understand, the station is about as unrepresentative of the rest of Manhattan as one can get. Even the rest of Central Park melted off before the station, which is located within dense trees/shrubs, keeping it pretty well shaded throughout the day. IIRC, you need 50% or greater coverage of 1" snow depth of the recording area for it to be counted as 1" snow depth.

[nzucker]

There is a vast discrepancy in snow cover in Dobbs Ferry. Shaded north-facing lawns and wooded hollow generally have 3-5", while the rest of the town is pretty bare. There's definitely an elevation gradient too, as places near the Hudson River at like 50' elevation have no snow anywhere, whereas there's a lot more general coverage once you get up to around 300-400', which is of course the less developed sections anyway, which also helps to retain snow cover.

I'm putting the past couple days down as a trace since my front yard is bare, backyard is only like 60% covered, and the entrance to the nature preserve is snowless outside of patches...you have to walk about a quarter mile back into the woods, giving you more shade and less human traffic, to get into solid snow cover. But once you get deep into the Juhring Estate Nature Preserve, it's a winter wonderland with plenty of snow still on the ground. Amazingly, the bottom layer is from 12/26, the first major storm of what's been a long and impressive winter. Wow!

[Alpha5]

There is a vast discrepancy in snow cover in Dobbs Ferry. Shaded north-facing lawns and wooded hollow generally have 3-5", while the rest of the town is pretty bare. There's definitely an elevation gradient too, as places near the Hudson River at like 50' elevation have no snow anywhere, whereas there's a lot more general coverage once you get up to around 300-400', which is of course the less developed sections anyway, which also helps to retain snow cover.

I'm putting the past couple days down as a trace since my front yard is bare, backyard is only like 60% covered, and the entrance to the nature preserve is snowless outside of patches...you have to walk about a quarter mile back into the woods, giving you more shade and less human traffic, to get into solid snow cover. But once you get deep into the Juhring Estate Nature Preserve, it's a winter wonderland with plenty of snow still on the ground. Amazingly, the bottom layer is from 12/26, the first major storm of what's been a long and impressive winter. Wow!

Same situation here. Before todays storm, the south facing part of my property is at 1-2, the east facing side had 6-7 and the north facing side had 10.

However, I have been measuring from the north side all winter (away from house, relatively flat) so for consistency's sake, Im recording the 10" down.

[RU848789]

From what I understand, the station is about as unrepresentative of the rest of Manhattan as one can get. Even the rest of Central Park melted off before the station, which is located within dense trees/shrubs, keeping it pretty well shaded throughout the day. IIRC, you need 50% or greater coverage of 1" snow depth of the recording area for it to be counted as 1" snow depth.

Thanks - it may not be representative, but at least it's a small attempt to minimize the impacts of the urban landscape/heat island. Pretty sure the record for consecutive days of snowcover on somewhere more "representative," like Broadway, would be about 2, lol.

[A-L-E-X]

Thanks - it may not be representative, but at least it's a small attempt to minimize the impacts of the urban landscape/heat island. Pretty sure the record for consecutive days of snowcover on somewhere more "representative," like Broadway, would be about 2, lol.

According to a poster who went into the Park there are parts of the Park that actually maintained a 6 inch snowcover even after the official measurement went down to 0. Perhaps there is some remnant snowcover (not just old piles) left over from Dec 26, 2010 still in the Park.

[A-L-E-X]

From what I understand, the station is about as unrepresentative of the rest of Manhattan as one can get. Even the rest of Central Park melted off before the station, which is located within dense trees/shrubs, keeping it pretty well shaded throughout the day. IIRC, you need 50% or greater coverage of 1" snow depth of the recording area for it to be counted as 1" snow depth.

BTW this is also why they didnt make the 90 degree day record last summer.... they had twice as many 89 degrees as everyone else and the shading is the reason why.

[uncle W]

1947-48 vs 2010-11 snow depth as of this morning...

NYC snow depth for 1947-48 and this year so far...

1947-48 and 2010-11 snow pack...

date.....47-48....10-11

12/23.........2.........0

12/24.........2.........0

12/25.........1.........0

12/26.......26.......13

12/27.......25.......20

12/28.......24.......18

12/29.......22.......16

12/30.......20.......14

12/31.......17.......13

01/01.......15.......12

01/02.......15.......09

01/03.......15.......06

01/04.......14.......05

01/05.......13.......04

01/06.......14.......02

01/07.......15.......01

01/08.......13.......03

01/09.......10.......02

01/10.......10.......02

01/11.......09.......02

01/12.......08.......09

01/13.......08.......08

01/14.......07.......07

01/15.......07.......06

01/16.......07.......05

01/17.......07.......04

01/18.......09.......05

01/19.......09.......02

01/20.......08.......01

01/21.......09.......06

01/22.......10.......06

01/23.......10.......06

01/24.......13.......06

01/25.......13.......06

01/26.......12.......16

01/27.......12.......23

01/28.......11.......20

01/29.......10.......19

01/30.......10.......18

01/31.......09.......17

02/01.......08.......18

02/02.......08.......17

02/03.......08.......16

02/04.......12.......16

02/05.......13.......15

02/06.......13.......15

02/07.......13.......13

02/08.......12.......11

02/09.......12.......10

02/10.......11.......10

02/11.......12.......08

02/12.......09.......08

02/13.......08.......08

02/14.......07.......07

02/15.......06.......05

02/16.......05.......04

02/17.......03.......02

02/18.......02.......0

02/19.......T.........0

02/20.......0.........0

02/21.......0.........03

02/22.......05.......03

02/23.......03.......02

02/24.......02

02/25.......T

02/26.......0

02/27.......0

02/28.......0

02/29.......0

03/01.......0

03/02.......02

03/03.......01

03/04.......01

03/05.......01

03/06.......T

03/07.......T

[Allsnow]

1947-48 vs 2010-11 snow depth as of this morning...

NYC snow depth for 1947-48 and this year so far...

1947-48 and 2010-11 snow pack...

date.....47-48....10-11

12/23.........2.........0

12/24.........2.........0

12/25.........1.........0

12/26.......26.......13

12/27.......25.......20

12/28.......24.......18

12/29.......22.......16

12/30.......20.......14

12/31.......17.......13

01/01.......15.......12

01/02.......15.......09

01/03.......15.......06

01/04.......14.......05

01/05.......13.......04

01/06.......14.......02

01/07.......15.......01

01/08.......13.......03

01/09.......10.......02

01/10.......10.......02

01/11.......09.......02

01/12.......08.......09

01/13.......08.......08

01/14.......07.......07

01/15.......07.......06

01/16.......07.......05

01/17.......07.......04

01/18.......09.......05

01/19.......09.......02

01/20.......08.......01

01/21.......09.......06

01/22.......10.......06

01/23.......10.......06

01/24.......13.......06

01/25.......13.......06

01/26.......12.......16

01/27.......12.......23

01/28.......11.......20

01/29.......10.......19

01/30.......10.......18

01/31.......09.......17

02/01.......08.......18

02/02.......08.......17

02/03.......08.......16

02/04.......12.......16

02/05.......13.......15

02/06.......13.......15

02/07.......13.......13

02/08.......12.......11

02/09.......12.......10

02/10.......11.......10

02/11.......12.......08

02/12.......09.......08

02/13.......08.......08

02/14.......07.......07

02/15.......06.......05

02/16.......05.......04

02/17.......03.......02

02/18.......02.......0

02/19.......T.........0

02/20.......0.........0

02/21.......0.........03

02/22.......05

02/23.......03

02/24.......02

02/25.......T

02/26.......0

02/27.......0

02/28.......0

02/29.......0

03/01.......0

03/02.......02

03/03.......01

03/04.......01

03/05.......01

03/06.......T

03/07.......T

Wow crazy similarities

[A-L-E-X]

Well according to that, our next snow event is in early March lol. Unc, how much snow did the 1947-48 snow season have from March 1st onwards?

[uncle W]

Well according to that, our next snow event is in early March lol. Unc, how much snow did the 1947-48 snow season have from March 1st onwards?

4.7"...

[A-L-E-X]

4.7"...

Wow, so the season to date is very similar and an average March would get us to just barely beat 1947-48.

[uncle W]

Wow, so the season to date is very similar and an average March would get us to just barely beat 1947-48.

the 22 la nina or near la nina March's since 1950 averaged slightly below normal and snowfall averaged around 5" for March/April...