Thunder Road Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I'm surprised no one started a thread on it yet. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/storms/02172003.html Post your pics, anecdotes, totals, videos...whatever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Probably the last good spread-the-wealth event. Even though it didn't have 38" totals in the coastal plain, its magnitude made it impressive, unlike the 09-10 and 10-11 storms which were mostly jackpots for only one or two of the I-95 cities. The 9-year-old weather weenie I was, I measured over 24" using two rulers taped together, haha. Looks like totals were closer to 18-20", but if I recall correctly we had 4" or 5" left on the ground from a storm a week earlier. But then I checked the PNS, I noticed all of Lower Bucks in the 14-18" range, with the sites closest to me reporting 14.0" and 16.3". Meanwhile, supposedly Byberry actually did get 24.5". Was there actually a Lower Bucks screwhole with the storm? Even Ray's map shows an area of lower totals over Mercer County that looks like it would extend into Bucks. The other thing I remember was how as the storm ended it changed to sleet. I think in the middle of the storm, the TV forecast totals were still going up (I swear I saw 20-36" or something like it on one of the newscasts) but then Monday morning we had barely gained anything overnight thanks to the changeover. The product of that, though, was the glaciers that formed. I remember being able to walk on the snow, rather than in it, a week later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Also interesting that the KU books include 2" on Feb 15 into PHL's total, bringing it to 20.8", whereas Mount Holly keeps it at 18.7" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bliz299 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 For sure one to remember! My total was 20.3" though may have been an inch or two higher. I had a walking cast on my left foot and trudging through the snow to measure was difficult. Peak wind was 52mph with many gusts over 40mph. Vis. was below 1/4 much of the afternoon with temps. upper teens to mid-20's until late in the afternoon; max. was 31. Precip. did end as more sleet than snow. Time for a repeat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCT777 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I posted a pic from PDS II in Ralph's thread: http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/39306-post-your-past-blizzardgood-snow-pics-here/#entry2120344 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Also interesting that the KU books include 2" on Feb 15 into PHL's total, bringing it to 20.8", whereas Mount Holly keeps it at 18.7" http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/storms/RERFEB03.txt SXUS71 KPHI 172305RERPHLRECORD EVENT REPORTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ605 PM EST MON FEB 17 2003...PRESIDENTS DAY WEEKEND STORM 2003 IN PHILADELPHIA...THROUGH 400 PM...18.7 INCHES OF SNOW HAD FALLEN AT PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SINCE SNOW BEGAN ON SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 16TH. THIS IS THE THIRD HIGHEST TOTAL FOR A FEBRUARY STORM EVENT. THE HIGHEST AMOUNT IS 21.3 INCHES ON FEBRUARY 11TH AND 12TH IN 1983 AND THE SECOND HIGHEST IS 18.9 INCHES ON FEBRUARY 12TH THROUGH 14TH IN 1899. LOOKING AT ALL-TIME WINTER STORMS IN PHILADELPHIA...THIS STORM NOW RANKS NUMBER 6 ON THE LIST WITH 18.7 INCHES.THE TOP FIVE STORMS ARE30.7 INCHES ON JANUARY 7TH AND 8TH IN 1996.21.3 INCHES ON FEBRUARY 11TH AND 12TH IN 1983.21.0 INCHES ON DECEMBER 25TH AND 26TH IN 1909.19.4 INCHES ON APRIL 3RD AND 4TH IN 1915.18.9 INCHES ON FEBRUARY 12TH THROUGH 14TH IN 1899.BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WITH THIS STORM...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL BE CONDUCTING ADDITIONAL QUALITY CONTROL AND THE FINAL AMOUNTS FOR THIS WEEKENDS STORM MAY BE ADJUSTED IN THE COMING DAYS. IN ADDITION...EARLIER THIS WEEKEND...1.1 INCHES OF SNOW FELL ON SATURDAY FEBRUARY 15TH. IN PHILADELPHIA HISTORY...THERE ARE SEVERAL MAJOR SNOW STORMS WHICH ARE THREE DAY EVENTS. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL BE REVIEWING THESE PREVIOUS EVENTS TO SEE IF SATURDAYS SNOWFALL SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE STORM TOTAL. HOWEVER...TWENTY-ONE HOURS OF TIME SEPARATED THE END OF SATURDAYS SNOW AND THE START OF SUNDAYS SNOWFALL...AND AT THIS TIME THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS TREATING THEM AS SEPARATE EVENTS. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU COUNT THIS AS ONE STORM OR TWO... PHILADELPHIA AND ALL THE SURROUNDING REGION SAW THE EQUIVALENT OF A WINTERS WORTH OF SNOWFALL THIS WEEKEND...WHICH IS A LOT OF SNOW IN ANYONES BOOK.$$SZATKOWSKI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phlwx Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Poor PD2 is now merely 8th on the list after 12/19/09 and 2/5/10 did their beatdown of our region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluescat1 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 You don't see this too often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Probably the last good spread-the-wealth event. Even though it didn't have 38" totals in the coastal plain, its magnitude made it impressive, unlike the 09-10 and 10-11 storms which were mostly jackpots for only one or two of the I-95 cities. Guess it depends on your definition on "jackpot"... but it does appear to have been the last storm to drop a foot plus to all the big Northeast urban centers along I-95. December 2009 dropped 10+ to all of them, but Central Park and Logan were both less than 12". The 9-year-old weather weenie I was, I measured over 24" using two rulers taped together, haha. Looks like totals were closer to 18-20", but if I recall correctly we had 4" or 5" left on the ground from a storm a week earlier. But then I checked the PNS, I noticed all of Lower Bucks in the 14-18" range, with the sites closest to me reporting 14.0" and 16.3". Meanwhile, supposedly Byberry actually did get 24.5". Was there actually a Lower Bucks screwhole with the storm? Even Ray's map shows an area of lower totals over Mercer County that looks like it would extend into Bucks. I remember being relatively ripped off in that one with *only* 15.1". Of course all the blowing and drifting did NOT make that one an easy storm to measure. I'm sure some drifts were over 2 feet. The other thing I remember was how as the storm ended it changed to sleet. I think in the middle of the storm, the TV forecast totals were still going up (I swear I saw 20-36" or something like it on one of the newscasts) but then Monday morning we had barely gained anything overnight thanks to the changeover. The product of that, though, was the glaciers that formed. I remember being able to walk on the snow, rather than in it, a week later. I wasn't paying much attention to the TV forecasts but I do remember being impressed with how quickly the snow accumulated down in Philly with the amazing FGEN... It started snowing at PHL around 7AM but there wasn't anything more than flurries at TTN until 8 hours later. Philly had over 8" before it even started to accumulate in TTN, thanks to the epic dry air push from the north. We would have a burst of 20dBZ over us and would get a few flurries, then it would recede back south... and that went on for hours. The flip side of that was while PHL started mixing with sleet around 7PM that evening, it was a whole 11 hours later before the sleet made it up to TTN. The slow progress over such a short distance was pretty epic. By comparison, in 96 it was only 2 hours difference between the start time at PHL vs. TTN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebBreaker63 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 That weekend my wife and I flew out of AC for a Vegas get away. We left the kids at home with the two oldest and a neighbor sitter. When we left Friday the forecast was not calling for much and felt comfortable going. When we arrived at Vegas and got the hotel room and saw the news - and the predicted storm totals kept going up... Then Major winter storm.... Long story short when we got back to AC airport Monday night we were delayed but able to land, however the car was buried in snow (as was everyone else's) everyone was borrowing shovels from each other digging the cars out. There was a guy with a bull dozer in the parking lot that helped as well. Finally got the car out (2 hours) and started driving home. Then my tire went flat (corner of a snow shovel) had to change tire on GSP cold and snow all over. When we got back to TR the sun started coming up and I couldn't get into my drive way (shoveled a space to pull in) it took a while. Had to call out of work the next day to finish clean up. Kids were fine - just wish I left better instructions on some periodic shoveling for my two oldest at the time.... Yeah - will never forget this puppy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phlwx Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 PD 2 was my first East Coast snowstorm...ended up with 21" in North Coventry near Pottstown (where I lived at the time). Loved how cold it was during much of the storm (low teens, subzero wind chills)...reminded me of Minnesota snowstorms in that regard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieOber Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I remember the massive board freakout over the GFS being way south Friday prior to the storm and on Friday evening Paul Kocin saying on the Weather Channel no accumulating snow north of the M/D line would be a good bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Gaines Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Remember this one was a massive ice storm for Central KY got over 1.5 inches of freezing rain, in fact I was where the highest ice accumulations occured . I was in the dark for days and my dog died during the storm. Hard times for a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boch23 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I was up in Wilkes barre Scranton for a hockey tournament. The day we got there it was 3 degrees. First watch was like 3-6 then 4-8 and up and up from there to the eventual 1-2 feet we got. I don't remember 96 sadly. So this was the first big snowstorm that I experienced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris L Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I measured 21.5 inches. But like so many other people from DC-NYC-BOS, we all had sleet mixed in, I seriously thought I would make a run for 30"+ if was not for sleet.... Beautiful storm though, and I think if DC-PHL-NYC did not have mixing, it would be right there with Jan 1996 for amounts for the big cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighStakes Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I measured 21.5 inches. But like so many other people from DC-NYC-BOS, we all had sleet mixed in, I seriously thought I would make a run for 30"+ if was not for sleet.... Beautiful storm though, and I think if DC-PHL-NYC did not have mixing, it would be right there with Jan 1996 for amounts for the big cities. Would have definitely hit 30"+ here if not for the sleet. Measured close to 2 ft. before the changeover. Heavy sleet lasted about 6 hours or so then ended with a brief period of heavy snow. Heavy sleet did not really add to the total, more or less tended to compact the snow that had already fallen. Picked up about 2 more inches with final snow burst and ended with a little over 26. Great storm with a very long duration. Always agood thing when everyone up and down the coast does well. Eases the tension and jealousy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RutgersWx92 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Great storm, better than any of the 09-10 or 10-11 storms. My town (Bridgewater) measured 22.5'', by far the biggest snowstorm I can remember. I remember having a hard time walking in the snow because it was so deep (I was only ten at the time). The last truly great storm for all of I-95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacChump Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I was living in federal hill in Baltimore at the time. Trudged down to a buddy's who lived about three houses up from the science center and crashed there for a night. I can remember walking over to the harbor during the brunt of the storm and being amazed that it was frozen over. Such a cool storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris L Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Would have definitely hit 30"+ here if not for the sleet. Measured close to 2 ft. before the changeover. Heavy sleet lasted about 6 hours or so then ended with a brief period of heavy snow. Heavy sleet did not really add to the total, more or less tended to compact the snow that had already fallen. Picked up about 2 more inches with final snow burst and ended with a little over 26. Great storm with a very long duration. Always agood thing when everyone up and down the coast does well. Eases the tension and jealousy. Yes, I agree. 6 hours of sleet is quite a lot. Is this storm on par with February 6 2010 or February 10 2010 down your way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisy Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hated this storm just outside of Philly, lived in Huntingdon Valley PA at the time. While it's tough to hate over a foot of snow I only got around 15" or so, places to my north west south and east got close to double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RutgersWx92 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Does anyone know how far north sleet line got? I didn't think I ever changed over... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowanBrandon Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I only remembered that it snowed. Nothing truly "memorable" from my perspective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighStakes Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Yes, I agree. 6 hours of sleet is quite a lot. Is this storm on par with February 6 2010 or February 10 2010 down your way? Yes, in my opinion it's definitely on par with both of those storms, however both of the 2010 storms had much more wind. My favorite of three was Feb. 9/10th 2010 because the area I live was the bullseye. We had 32 inches here with sustained strong winds, but for most of the region accumulations were generally in the 12-24 range on a south to north axis. For instance the dulles airport area received 10-15 inches and their snow was over by early to mid afternoon whereas heavy snow continued to fall in northern MD until early evening and didn't completely end unitl around 10:00 - 10:30. Point being PD2 gave the entire region heavier accumulation than Feb. 9th/10 2010. I know some down here would disagree with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJO812 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 This storm happened the day after my uncle got married. Forecasters in NYC were calling for 6-12 inches of snow. In the end, I ended up with 19 inches. What a great storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RutgersWx92 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 This storm happened the day after my uncle got married. Forecasters in NYC were calling for 6-12 inches of snow. In the end, I ended up with 19 inches. What a great storm. I remember The Weather Channel calling for 12-24''. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hated this storm just outside of Philly, lived in Huntingdon Valley PA at the time. While it's tough to hate over a foot of snow I only got around 15" or so, places to my north west south and east got close to double. I kinda disliked this storm for similar reasons even though the totals nearby weren't quite that different, more like 4 or 5" higher. The one thing I did really not like about this storm was the low accumulation rates... the best rate we had was maybe 1 1/2" per hour in moderate snow, it was never really 1/4SM +SN for any length of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Does anyone know how far north sleet line got? I didn't think I ever changed over... Somewhere between TTN and New Brunswick I think, my friends up there at Rutgers said they didn't see any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I only remembered that it snowed. Nothing truly "memorable" from my perspective. Did you live in Buena at the time? The map suggests they had ~20". I would think I'd remember that... did you get drunk to celebrate the storm and end up having the alcohol wipe your memory of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allsnow Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I kinda disliked this storm for similar reasons even though the totals nearby weren't quite that different, more like 4 or 5" higher. The one thing I did really not like about this storm was the low accumulation rates... the best rate we had was maybe 1 1/2" per hour in moderate snow, it was never really 1/4SM +SN for any length of time. Forky always called it the most boring 1 foot snowstorm. It pretty much was all over running moisture. It was a decent storm, yet I have had a few they has top it since then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Forky always called it the most boring 1 foot snowstorm. It pretty much was all over running moisture. It was a decent storm, yet I have had a few they has top it since then A large portion of 96 was essentially overrunning too, but visibility dropped down to near zero during it. Maybe the stronger winds helped too, since 96 had gusts to blizzard strength for a while while PDII did not. But I'm sure rates were better for at least a time in 96 than during PDII. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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