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February 8th-9th Snowstorm/Blizzard Event Observations


WeatherFox

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I came up with a total LE of 3.87 for the storm.

 

That in included 0.20" in the rain gage before the final switch to all frozen and 3.67" in a core sample that I took today. Not sure how accurate the latter is, but its the best I could do.

CoCoRaHS gauge?  Storms like this are why I got my parents a standard rain gauge.  Of course, like the snow blower joke, its probably why they haven't had a big storm since then :lol:

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Cool...  this is the set-up at my parents, I went a little overboard maybe ;)

nice set up...I still have and use the 4" plastic rain guage...I have an eight inch tipping bucket with a nimbus precipitation counter that is packed away some where...The tipping bucket was always little less than the 4" plastic one I used...I found during light rain events the tipping bucket guage was 5-10% less...heavy rain was closer to the 4" guage...The best way I used to measure water equivalent for a big snowstorms was a core sample but not for mixed events...I did a core sample at the end of the blizzard of 96 and got more water than was in the guage...The last storm had various water eq. for the city...

location...precip...snowfall

my house.....1.25".....10" est.snowfall...

Newark.........1.26".....10"

JFK...............0.96".....6"

LGA..............0.89".....12"

KNYC...........1.53".....11"

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For this storm, I measured from the CoCoRaHs guage (0.20") around the time of the last phase change to mostly snow after melting what was in the funnel collector.  I then ignored the guage for for the rest of the storm.

 

I think the 3.87" is a good best effort, but I can see a number of ways it can be off by a bit, including some more moisture seeping into the gound early during the snowfall, taking a core a full 24+ hours after the snow stopped, my level of skill with regard to taking a clean core (I used the 4" gauge, but had to do it in segments so I may have either introduced extra or lost some snow in the process) and the core location may not be ideally representative.  I think I did a good job, but it is inexact.

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FWIW, When we had similar snow depths, but from multiple storms (inlcuding some absorbed rain) two years ago, I had a core sample showing over 5.5" of liquid.

 

 

Not necessarily related to this post, but I just wanted to let you know that my dad and I drove to Smithtown yesterday...in particular, St Johnland road, and other side streets, and it's a BEAUTIFUL area. Wow. I took copious amounts of photos. We then drove up north to the Smithtown Bay. Your town really got hit hard. 

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For this storm, I measured from the CoCoRaHs guage (0.20") around the time of the last phase change to mostly snow after melting what was in the funnel collector.  I then ignored the guage for for the rest of the storm.

 

I think the 3.87" is a good best effort, but I can see a number of ways it can be off by a bit, including some more moisture seeping into the gound early during the snowfall, taking a core a full 24+ hours after the snow stopped, my level of skill with regard to taking a clean core (I used the 4" gauge, but had to do it in segments so I may have either introduced extra or lost some snow in the process) and the core location may not be ideally representative.  I think I did a good job, but it is inexact.

I believe that would be right around 20lbs per sq ft.  Figure out how many sq ft your roof is and it probably winds up being a scary amount of weight up there right now.

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Looks awesome Ray!

nice set up...

Thanks!

 

 

I still have and use the 4" plastic rain guage...I have an eight inch tipping bucket with a nimbus precipitation counter that is packed away some where...The tipping bucket was always little less than the 4" plastic one I used...I found during light rain events the tipping bucket guage was 5-10% less...heavy rain was closer to the 4" guage...The best way I used to measure water equivalent for a big snowstorms was a core sample but not for mixed events...I did a core sample at the end of the blizzard of 96 and got more water than was in the guage...The last storm had various water eq. for the city...

location...precip...snowfall

my house.....1.25".....10" est.snowfall...

Newark.........1.26".....10"

JFK...............0.96".....6"

LGA..............0.89".....12"

KNYC...........1.53".....11"

Yeah usually they just use the 4" one.  I'll have them haul out the big one if it looks like they're going to get a big storm (right now just the support is actually up, not the gauge), but since I put that in back in Spring 2011, there hasn't been a true need for it. Figures ;)  The Davis gauge is adjustable, so while it used to have a dry bias compared to the 4" one, now its got a slight wet bias. 

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Not necessarily related to this post, but I just wanted to let you know that my dad and I drove to Smithtown yesterday...in particular, St Johnland road, and other side streets, and it's a BEAUTIFUL area. Wow. I took copious amounts of photos. We then drove up north to the Smithtown Bay. Your town really got hit hard. 

Cool...I live between St Johnland Rd and Landing Avenue in north Smithtown.

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I believe that would be right around 20lbs per sq ft.  Figure out how many sq ft your roof is and it probably winds up being a scary amount of weight up there right now.

 

I don't need a calculator to see the effect on our local bowling alley.  Thank God they were closed at the time.  This is on Landing avenue on the north side of the railroad tracks in Smithtown:

 

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/long_island&id=8987059

 

I hope there aren't more from the rain on top of the snow earlier today.

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Definitely agreed about the snowpack-fog is literally just a snow-eater. A lot of lawns are actually back down to just patches. My lawn that faces north is holding on for dear life. Good thing we likely have a refresher snow event coming up. :yikes:

 

Wow, your area truly does stink for snow. Still a solid foot plus on the ground here in Westchester after 17" fell. We had a solid coating of ZR that helped preserve the snow pack, but 40/40 right now is hurting with fog. 

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Wow, your area truly does stink for snow. Still a solid foot plus on the ground here in Westchester after 17" fell. We had a solid coating of ZR that helped preserve the snow pack, but 40/40 right now is hurting with fog. 

Just amazing how much melted today-early this morning we still had a very solid pack but it just got wrecked after the rain and then the fog. By this time tomorrow it will almost all be gone outside of the large mounds. This happened a couple of times to us back in 10-11 when coastal fronts sometimes made it in and briefly spiked our temps and brought in stratus/fog. Just annihilates a snowpack.

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It's sad. I'm hoping temps don't go above 40 tomorrow. If they do I'll see bare ground. I find it hard to believe 17" of snow would melt so fast in 1 day. It happens a lot, but over longer periods of time. In March 2009, had a snowstorm, around a foot, by the end of the week, we were flirting with 70. In 2006 we got nearly 2 feet, it was all gone in 6 days when temps neared 60. What I'd like to see is some polar air work itself behind these major coastal systems, that way we'll at least have a snow pack for a week. Back in January, we got 2.7" of snow that lasted all week, we even got a snow on snow event because we had arctic air in place.

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It's sad. I'm hoping temps don't go above 40 tomorrow. If they do I'll see bare ground. I find it hard to believe 17" of snow would melt so fast in 1 day. It happens a lot, but over longer periods of time. In March 2009, had a snowstorm, around a foot, by the end of the week, we were flirting with 70. In 2006 we got nearly 2 feet, it was all gone in 6 days when temps neared 60. What I'd like to see is some polar air work itself behind these major coastal systems, that way we'll at least have a snow pack for a week. Back in January, we got 2.7" of snow that lasted all week, we even got a snow on snow event because we had arctic air in place.

Snow cover is usually tenuous on Long Island. :(

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Took a measurement around 11:15 PM tonight and noted 17.5" on the ground here in Port Jefferson.  It is likely holding on better here because it was snowing since around noon Friday....and the snow was heavy wet snow till the atmosphere cooled around 9:00 PM or so Friday when the nature of the snow changed radically to fine powder...I had taken a measurement a few minutes after 9:00 PM that Friday and already had 15.5 inches of cement on the ground....and it was the final 10 inches that was powder for the storm total of 25.5".  So the high water content of the bulk of the snow has reasonably good staying power.  To my south, there was little accumulating snow till after dark on Friday, and the snow turned powdery and dry there much more quickly. 

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Took a measurement around 11:15 PM tonight and noted 17.5" on the ground here in Port Jefferson.  It is likely holding on better here because it was snowing since around noon Friday....and the snow was heavy wet snow till the atmosphere cooled around 9:00 PM or so Friday when the nature of the snow changed radically to fine powder...I had taken a measurement a few minutes after 9:00 PM that Friday and already had 15.5 inches of cement on the ground....and it was the final 10 inches that was powder for the storm total of 25.5".  So the high water content of the bulk of the snow has reasonably good staying power.  To my south, there was little accumulating snow till after dark on Friday, and the snow turned powdery and dry there much more quickly. 

 Pretty much the same story here, maybe an inch less.  If it clears for a bit before the sun come up without too much wind, the snow will refreeze a little (and the roads will ice up).

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I took a drive out to the Hamptons today and the amount of snow in Central Suffolk is incredible! They were still plowing and using huge snow blower trucks the type of which you see in the mountain west. East of West Hampton the amounts go down drastically. And the Nassau Suffolk border going west. I see allot of grass in Wantagh in Seldon you cant buy grass anywhere!

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Took a measurement around 11:15 PM tonight and noted 17.5" on the ground here in Port Jefferson.  It is likely holding on better here because it was snowing since around noon Friday....and the snow was heavy wet snow till the atmosphere cooled around 9:00 PM or so Friday when the nature of the snow changed radically to fine powder...I had taken a measurement a few minutes after 9:00 PM that Friday and already had 15.5 inches of cement on the ground....and it was the final 10 inches that was powder for the storm total of 25.5".  So the high water content of the bulk of the snow has reasonably good staying power.  To my south, there was little accumulating snow till after dark on Friday, and the snow turned powdery and dry there much more quickly. 

 

 

Down to 14.5" of snow on the ground in Port Jefferson as of 6:20 PM tonight....though the worst of the melting may be over for a bit.

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