greg ralls Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I had just purchased my cross-country skis and then got 'em back from having the bindings put on right before this storm. I was able to ski to the Wawa in Newtwown Square that was just in the pics from today's flizzard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowanBrandon Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 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? Haha, since I would have been 14 at the time, I sure hope not. Of course I remember the storm itself; but if I remember correctly(probably not) it was closer to 15" than to 20". But I guess it wasn't all that memorable because it was just a steady snow over a period of time and really had no crazy heavy rates at points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisy 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. You hit the nail on the head. I should have mentioned that. I may have gotten decent accumulations but here just N of the city it was basically Light-Moderate snow all day. Maybe an hour or 2 of "heavy"...it was a long boring storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisy Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 If you guys remember PDII was the first "MECS" since the bust of March 01...while there was snow earlier in the year this was the first "big one". I remember some of the ETA QPF run with this storm. Some showed ridiculous amounts of snow. I woke up around 5 am. DC was getting raked with snow. I was excited but as the precip got here it got lighter. Then the heaviest bands stayed in NJ. There was a period in the evening where we got some heavy snow but that was about it. Same reason 2/17/03 was one my least favorite snowstorms, January 2011 is my all-time favorite. That period from 6/7-midnight was absolutely amazing. We've all seen snow, it's all about heavy snow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Yes, PDII was the last of the great storms. For large snows and high winds/drifts, it ranks with 1996, 1993, 1983 for me. The snow map looks a couple inches shy in many areas. The 20+ inch area is several miles from where I lived in the LV, but I measured 22" AFTER the storm had ended. I likely had closer to 24" considering that. The drifts were not as bad as 96, but in my mind were #2 all time for me. The two lasting memories for me were the temps, which were single digit the entire storm. Can't ever remember a storm of this size having temps below the upper teens. The second memory was of the mega virga line of death that got hung up 20-30 north of the mason/dixon line. The border was in snow at 7am, while we ended up not seeing a flake until 4pm. However, when it got to me, it went from nothing to <1/4 mile visability in 5-10 minutes. I'll likely never see that again. Very impressive. So, it wasn't the greatest accumulator (1972 and 1996 at 30"), or the most intense rates (83, 93, and 96), or the biggest drifts (96), but it had plenty enough of everything which to me makes a well rounded storm to think about while you sip a cognac by the fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 The two lasting memories for me were the temps, which were single digit the entire storm. Can't ever remember a storm of this size having temps below the upper teens. Hmm, ABE rose well into the teens and actually surpassed 20 late in the storm. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KABE/2003/2/17/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA&theprefset=SHOWMETAR&theprefvalue=1 The border was in snow at 7am, while we ended up not seeing a flake until 4pm. However, when it got to me, it went from nothing to <1/4 mile visability in 5-10 minutes. I'll likely never see that again. Very impressive. Also of interest is that ABE generally reported 3/4SM or greater. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KABE/2003/2/16/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA&theprefset=SHOWMETAR&theprefvalue=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absolute Humidity Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Snow started with an extended period of flurries from 11am to 2pm due to the dry air. At 2pm with 35dbz over head, all hell broke loose. Temp was a balmy 12 and rose upto 28 late the next morning with sleet after 21" fell with a lot of that in the form of sleet. Pretty remarkable considering the tainting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Snow started with an extended period of flurries from 11am to 2pm due to the dry air. At 2pm with 35dbz over head, all hell broke loose. Temp was a balmy 12 and rose upto 28 late the next morning with sleet after 21" fell with a lot of that in the form of sleet. Pretty remarkable considering the tainting. I remember Rob Guarino mentioning how the sleet cut into accumulations. I think he may have forcasted 24 to 28 inches for the area. This storm was my second fav of all time with '96 being the best. I really would like to see the '96 record fall sometime in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absolute Humidity Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I remember Rob Guarino mentioning how the sleet cut into accumulations. I think he may have forcasted 24 to 28 inches for the area. This storm was my second fav of all time with '96 being the best. I really would like to see the '96 record fall sometime in the near future. Yeah 96 was is my top notch storm as well. Boxing Day my second favorite. 25" at least, it was so windy it was hard to measure between two inch bare spots and the five foot drifts on my front lawn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris L Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I remember Rob Guarino mentioning how the sleet cut into accumulations. I think he may have forcasted 24 to 28 inches for the area. This storm was my second fav of all time with '96 being the best. I really would like to see the '96 record fall sometime in the near future. I think Jan 1996 will be broken soon.... Let's face it, if we got lucky with last weekend's blizzard, (New Haven got 34" of snow) slight shift and timing, 1996 would have been broken rather easily in snow amounts. Boxing Day had 25-28" here, quite hard to measure, but Union County had 30+ amounts. Given right situation, New Jersey will see a 3'+ blizzard that surpassed JAN 1996. I am pretty confident we will see one in our lifetimes. February 6 2010 would have came close, though. PHL was only off by 2.2" from that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Road Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 lol Ray ruining everyone's happy memories. If we really didn't hit 20" - which it looks like we didn't - then I've never seen a 20" snowfall that I remember. All the 09-10 ones came up short in Lower Bucks (although after 2/10/10, we definitely had >20" snow depth, at least) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I think Jan 1996 will be broken soon.... Let's face it, if we got lucky with last weekend's blizzard, (New Haven got 34" of snow) slight shift and timing, 1996 would have been broken rather easily in snow amounts. Boxing Day had 25-28" here, quite hard to measure, but Union County had 30+ amounts. Given right situation, New Jersey will see a 3'+ blizzard that surpassed JAN 1996. I am pretty confident we will see one in our lifetimes. February 6 2010 would have came close, though. PHL was only off by 2.2" from that one. Just make sure it also includes Lower Bucks County . That week in February was unbelievable, I have some nice HD vid of the Death Band...It cracks me up when I go back and watch it over and over again because day's before the storm(s) the forums were throwing a term around I wasn't familiar with (CCB's) and I and found out real quick what they were. . Yet, my recollection of all of the forecast predictions for '96 was just amazing. Every update included a higher accumulation amount, first there was to be up to 12". Then 12 to 18" and on to 24" or more were possible. I really need to find pictures from '96. My brother in law and I went out and walked around the neighborhood and took pics...I really want to share these...Hey by the way, nice to see you post down here in the Philly forum...I enjoyed your posts over at Eastern when there weren't any sub forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris L Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Thanks sir, that means a lot! How much did you get with Jan 1996 in Lower Bucks? 32-36"? I know PHL area was surpreme in that area as did in 2/5/2010.I just hope we can get another one. This will sound very stupid, by my dream event would be Hurricane Sandy with snow. Imagine that one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcutter Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Thanks sir, that means a lot! How much did you get with Jan 1996 in Lower Bucks? 32-36"? I know PHL area was surpreme in that area as did in 2/5/2010. I just hope we can get another one. This will sound very stupid, by my dream event would be Hurricane Sandy with snow. Imagine that one? I think a Snowacane would be awesome!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSky Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Thanks sir, that means a lot! How much did you get with Jan 1996 in Lower Bucks? 32-36"? I know PHL area was surpreme in that area as did in 2/5/2010. I just hope we can get another one. This will sound very stupid, by my dream event would be Hurricane Sandy with snow. Imagine that one? I was only a couple miles from the border of lower bucks living in horsham and only recorded 25" in the 1996 storm 22" in the 2003 storm 10" boxing day 6 " 2/5/10 upper bucks, allentown area and lehigh valley have pretty much got the shaft in all big storms the last five years as far as being anywhere near a jackpot zone would be curious to know what totals people received in the northern areas in 2003 and 1996, is it possible to do good here in a big storm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I was only a couple miles from the border of lower bucks living in horsham and only recorded 25" in the 1996 storm 22" in the 2003 storm 10" boxing day 6 " 2/5/10 upper bucks, allentown area and lehigh valley have pretty much got the shaft in all big storms the last five years as far as being anywhere near a jackpot zone would be curious to know what totals people received in the northern areas in 2003 and 1996, is it possible to do good here in a big storm? ABE had 25" in 1996 and 20" in 2003. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSky Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 ABE had 25" in 1996 and 20" in 2003. guess i am bad luck ray when it comes to the heaviest snow areas in storms but seems to me a new era of storms has taken place since the blizz of 2006 as many of the big notable ones that hit dc philly nyc prior to that date dumped higher amounts in the northern areas not necessarily jackpot but still significant totals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BucksCO_PA Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 lol Ray ruining everyone's happy memories. If we really didn't hit 20" - which it looks like we didn't - then I've never seen a 20" snowfall that I remember. All the 09-10 ones came up short in Lower Bucks (although after 2/10/10, we definitely had >20" snow depth, at least) I've lived in Lower Bucks, Churchville / Feasterville, or the neighboring Somerton section of NE Philly since 1976 and have experienced (2) 20"+ events - FEB 1983 & JAN 1996. FEB 10th, 2010 & FEB 23rd 1987 were both near misses at 19". Regarding FEB 2003, while you can never really complain about 16-17" of snow this one was very pedestrian and would rank below other comparable events like JAN 2011, FEB 2006, FEB 1978..... would rank similarly to JAN 2005. FEB 2003 was a long duration event with modest rates, painful as hell watching dry air devour snow for hrs on end while S. Jersey has 8" before we even saw a flake. Of note FEB 2003 was the coldest storm I've experienced, got down to 9 shortly after snow started falling that afternoon, nudged out JAN 1996 by one degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCT777 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I seem to remember the last burst of snow in the late morning of President's Day 2003 being very heavy snow...I measured 18.1" of snow at 9:30 AM and after the last flakes fell at about 12:30 PM there was 24" on the ground. So even if most of the event had rather pedestrian snowfall rates, that last burst was definitely heavy snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I seem to remember the last burst of snow in the late morning of President's Day 2003 being very heavy snow...I measured 18.1" of snow at 9:30 AM and after the last flakes fell at about 12:30 PM there was 24" on the ground. So even if most of the event had rather pedestrian snowfall rates, that last burst was definitely heavy snow. If we hadn't still been having some issues with mixing I'm sure we would've gotten in on that down by TTN... unfortunately... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJO812 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherman Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Will never forget this one. Stranded in Massachusetts with girlfriend, brother, and a friend at a motel. Upon returning home to Baltimore, it looked like a bomb went off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Thanks sir, that means a lot! How much did you get with Jan 1996 in Lower Bucks? 32-36"? I know PHL area was surpreme in that area as did in 2/5/2010. I just hope we can get another one. This will sound very stupid, by my dream event would be Hurricane Sandy with snow. Imagine that one? Lower Bucks County didn't get as much snow as Philadelphia did. We were about 4 inches short of the 30.9, so windy im not sure how anyone got an accurate measurement. Im with you on the "Sandy" storm but without all of the tragedy, we can only dream... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I've lived in Lower Bucks, Churchville / Feasterville, or the neighboring Somerton section of NE Philly since 1976 and have experienced (2) 20"+ events - FEB 1983 & JAN 1996. FEB 10th, 2010 & FEB 23rd 1987 were both near misses at 19". Regarding FEB 2003, while you can never really complain about 16-17" of snow this one was very pedestrian and would rank below other comparable events like JAN 2011, FEB 2006, FEB 1978..... would rank similarly to JAN 2005. FEB 2003 was a long duration event with modest rates, painful as hell watching dry air devour snow for hrs on end while S. Jersey has 8" before we even saw a flake. Of note FEB 2003 was the coldest storm I've experienced, got down to 9 shortly after snow started falling that afternoon, nudged out JAN 1996 by one degree. In 2003 sleet robbed LBC of additional accumulations, I recall having more than just 16 to 18 inches of snow. To me PDII had greater accumulations than 1/2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BucksCO_PA Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 In 2003 sleet robbed LBC of additional accumulations, I recall having more than just 16 to 18 inches of snow. To me PDII had greater accumulations than 1/2005. JAN 2005 ...BUCKS COUNTY... YARDLEY 15.5 FINAL MORRISVILLE 15.0 FINAL LANGHORNE 13.0 130 PM 1/23 LEVITTOWN 13.0 210 PM 1/23 FEB 2003 ...BUCKS COUNTY... LANGHORNE 17.8 145 PM 02/17 BENSALEM 16.3 615 PM 02/17 LEVITTOWN 15.5 430 PM 02/17 BRISTOL TWP 15.0 1230 PM 02/17 BRISTOL 15.0 730 AM 02/17 NESHAMINY FALLS 14.0 700 AM 02/17 Really not much different, couple of inches in some locations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 JAN 2005 ...BUCKS COUNTY... YARDLEY 15.5 FINAL MORRISVILLE 15.0 FINAL LANGHORNE 13.0 130 PM 1/23 LEVITTOWN 13.0 210 PM 1/23 FEB 2003 ...BUCKS COUNTY... LANGHORNE 17.8 145 PM 02/17 BENSALEM 16.3 615 PM 02/17 LEVITTOWN 15.5 430 PM 02/17 BRISTOL TWP 15.0 1230 PM 02/17 BRISTOL 15.0 730 AM 02/17 NESHAMINY FALLS 14.0 700 AM 02/17 Really not much different, couple of inches in some locations It sure seemed that it much more significant. I did recall in a previous post of a snow pack prior to PDII, I even remember driving in it to go to work. I'll have to check ray's site for amounts and see if it skewed my memories... Edit: Just looked at Ray's NJ maps and it looks like close to 8" fell near my neighborhood. This was on the 1/7/03, I would think there would have been considerable melting and shouldn't have affected my perception of how much snow I thought Levittown Pa received. I'm gonna keep my "Weenie Goggles" on and say there was much more than just 17 to 18 inches of snow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 It sure seemed that it much more significant. I did recall in a previous post of a snow pack prior to PDII, I even remember driving in it to go to work. I'll have to check ray's site for amounts and see if it skewed my memories... Could've been the duration, could've been the time of the week (PDII was Sunday-Monday versus 05 which was Saturday-Saturday night)... a variety of factors can go into the "feeling" of a storm being of varying degrees of significance. Could even be that road crews are just getting better at clearing out the big ones as they get more practice and more funding... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violentweatherfan Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Could've been the duration, could've been the time of the week (PDII was Sunday-Monday versus 05 which was Saturday-Saturday night)... a variety of factors can go into the "feeling" of a storm being of varying degrees of significance. Could even be that road crews are just getting better at clearing out the big ones as they get more practice and more funding... Wow, now I'm really confused...I thought iPDII started on Saturday. I remember leaving work early. even my weenie goggles are not clear. Edit: Just checked your site again and it did start on Sunday...not that I would doubt you Ray . What is effecting my perception is the amount of snow piled up in my development. It was by far more than any other storm other than '96. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Wow, now I'm really confused...I thought iPDII started on Saturday. I remember leaving work early. even my weenie goggles are not clear. As noted in the PHI RER (copied on page one near the top), there was an inch or so at PHL on Saturday the 15th, but a large period of time (over 20 hours) separated that relatively small amount from the start of the "main storm" on the morning of Sunday the 16th, which was essentially continuous precip (snow and/or sleet) from Sunday morning through early afternoon on Monday the 17th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Edit: Just checked your site again and it did start on Sunday...not that I would doubt you Ray . What is effecting my perception is the amount of snow piled up in my development. It was by far more than any other storm other than '96. That could have to do with moisture content... I think '05 was fluffier with more snow from the back side def zone which had higher ratios. The lower ratio front end warm advection snow was dominant in PDII since the warm layer that changed PHL and environs over the sleet never truly departed until the storm was done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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