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Post Pics, Thoughts, Recollections, Models, Maps, Links, etc of Overlooked or Underrated Winter Events

Deck Pic

By Deck Pic,
in Mid Atlantic

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gymengineer

gymengineer

Posted
Posted

BTW, I love this kind of thread. The feast/famine winter cycle we've been going through has made us pretty jaded about the moderate snowstorms that do accumulate nicely on everything.

My first few contributions- no pics from these, unfortunately:

12/12/82- 11" at IAD! Way underforecast, with one TV met wearing a bag over his head the next day. It was supposed to miss us to the south.

February 1986- awesome month in terms of frequent, moderate snowstorms, with at least two of them overperforming. From the 22nd through the 27th-- it was moderate snowstorm like every other day

1/25/1992- The main event for the winter, pretty much. 3-5" snowstorm that started just as the sun was going down in the afternoon. It quickly accumulated on roads out in the suburbs at least with the nice initial burst. After such a snow starved start to the season, it was a beautiful snowstorm.

1/28/1995- Overperforming clipper that bullseyed over the area, leaving 3-5". It accumulated quickly and coated everything.

2/16/1996- The original 1/25/00 in terms of last minute increase in the models in the 0Z runs, but I guess it gets overlooked in comparison. 6-10" of easily compacting snow across the area, but I think the most notable memory from that day has to be the terrible MARC train accident.

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gymengineer

gymengineer

Posted
Posted

I posted 2006 because most around here seem to trash it. Yes, it melted in about 20 minutes, but I had extended TSSN and some of the heaviest rates I've ever seen around here. I apologize if you guys were looking more for small events. I lack the good memory of some of you to recall those events.

I got ~13.5" of snow in that one, tied with 3/93. This makes the top 10 in my liftetime (tied for #6), so I definitely remember it as one of the best events I've ever experienced. In this area, we remember how Bob Ryan got spooked by the lack of accumulation by evening, so he revised the snow forecast down to 3-6" in the 11 pm newscast. I also remember how this was one of those few events where the RUC totally nailed the impending awesomeness. It was zwyts who was posting the RUC images...

Great storm.

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gymengineer

gymengineer

Posted
Posted

1/19/2005 - kicked off the season for most....2" IMBY.....was a clipper after the pattern had flipped so stuck easily during the day....of course 3 days before what was a disappointment for most of us

post-66-0-95277800-1323738497.jpg

Would you consider 1/21/07 to be just about the same situation? I guess it was a little less accumulation than 1/19/2005, but same idea- mid January pattern change that set the tone for a wintry 1/3 of winter.

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PhineasC

PhineasC

Posted
Posted

I got ~13.5" of snow in that one, tied with 3/93. This makes the top 10 in my liftetime (tied for #6), so I definitely remember it as one of the best events I've ever experienced. In this area, we remember how Bob Ryan got spooked by the lack of accumulation by evening, so he revised the snow forecast down to 3-6" in the 11 pm newscast. I also remember how this was one of those few events where the RUC totally nailed the impending awesomeness. It was zwyts who was posting the RUC images...

Great storm.

Yes, that was a great tracking storm. There was a core group of us in the thread all night posting the RUC and watching the meso updates. Very few useless straphanger weenies like in the 2009-2010 storms. Good times.

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gymengineer

gymengineer

Posted
Posted

January 30, 2010

Overshadowed by the double HECS a few days later. Broke a terrible January pattern. I remember tracking this one for what seemed like two weeks. ORH_wxman called it from really far out, as I recall. Very cold. "Cold snow" etc.

Look- an Ian-cast! http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/01/pm_update_cold_now_snowy_tomor.html

It was as if we willed this one back north. I loved the moment the 0Z NAM rolled in after this forecast. I was chatting with a friend in Nashville who was stuck at home with the snow/ice combo on the roads, and I was loving Alan's model page that allowed us to zoom in on the QPF by region. Of course, it was near euphoria in the forum.

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RIC_WX

RIC_WX

Posted
Posted

1/19/2005 - kicked off the season for most....2" IMBY.....was a clipper after the pattern had flipped so stuck easily during the day....of course 3 days before what was a disappointment for most of us

post-66-0-95277800-1323738497.jpg

Was blowtorch warm for the first half of January before that clipper raced through. That was a general 1"-2" for RIC also, wreaked havoc on the roads...temps in the 20's during the event which hit around lunchtime. Remember it well...still have some pics on my old PC.

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WVclimo

WVclimo

Posted
Posted

Thinking back on my quarter-century living in the DC 'burbs, there were a lot of nice memories of small snowfalls in lackluster years that are now overlooked.

Jan '84: a crummy winter, but had a rain storm end as a couple of inches of snow after changeover around the 10th-11th; then a few inches of cold snow a couple of days later, then a 4"er a few days after that, followed by a couple of below-zero nights. Winter began and ended that week, but it was a fun time.

Jan '92: picked up a quick 4" snow in the middle of a warm pattern. Seemed like a total fluke, and pretty much melted the next day, but had some nice rates.

Feb' 95: one of two snow days the whole winter, the other a week before. Picked up 5" in Beltsville.

Jan '02: a couple of inches of wet snow, that showed how difficult it is to get shutout the whole winter at our latitude.

Might be looking at one of those winters this year, but it likely won't be without its good moments.

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Carolina23

Carolina23

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Posted

January 30, 2010

Overshadowed by the double HECS a few days later. Broke a terrible January pattern. I remember tracking this one for what seemed like two weeks. ORH_wxman called it from really far out, as I recall. Very cold. "Cold snow" etc.

I remember this one well because me and the wife were down in DC for the Georgetown/Duke game that Saturday. The beginning of the snowiest period i'll probably ever see...

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WVclimo

WVclimo

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Yes, that was a great tracking storm. There was a core group of us in the thread all night posting the RUC and watching the meso updates. Very few useless straphanger weenies like in the 2009-2010 storms. Good times.

I stayed up all night for that one. I remember Weather53 commenting in the evening that when the low hit the shore at The VA Capes, it would seem to shift into neutral and rev up. Later, it did exactly that, much to Howard's bemusement. Really enjoyed that time on the boards.

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Ian

Ian

Posted
Posted

Look- an Ian-cast! http://voices.washin...nowy_tomor.html

It was as if we willed this one back north. I loved the moment the 0Z NAM rolled in after this forecast. I was chatting with a friend in Nashville who was stuck at home with the snow/ice combo on the roads, and I was loving Alan's model page that allowed us to zoom in on the QPF by region. Of course, it was near euphoria in the forum.

bust

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gymengineer

gymengineer

Posted
Posted

Thinking back on my quarter-century living in the DC 'burbs, there were a lot of nice memories of small snowfalls in lackluster years that are now overlooked.

Jan '84: a crummy winter, but had a rain storm end as a couple of inches of snow after changeover around the 10th-11th; then a few inches of cold snow a couple of days later, then a 4"er a few days after that, followed by a couple of below-zero nights. Winter began and ended that week, but it was a fun time.

Jan '92: picked up a quick 4" snow in the middle of a warm pattern. Seemed like a total fluke, and pretty much melted the next day, but had some nice rates.

Feb' 95: one of two snow days the whole winter, the other a week before. Picked up 5" in Beltsville.

Jan '02: a couple of inches of wet snow, that showed how difficult it is to get shutout the whole winter at our latitude.

Might be looking at one of those winters this year, but it likely won't be without its good moments.

Before the Dulles corridor started to get really developed, IAD got into the negative teens with some frequency. This stretch you mentioned yielded a -16F and -18F night at IAD (!!). But, I disagree that winter was over that week. 3/84 was one of the wintriest Marches we've had since 1960. A great thundersnow clipper-bomb paralyzed all traffic on 3/8 (5" at IAD), followed by a snow-to-ZR storm on 3/13 that actually managed to never break freezing at IAD with 1.01" of precip. And of course, the <970 mb low on the Delmarva dumped 3-6" of snow in the suburbs on 3/29.

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